


Did you miss me?

by gaudy_teke



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aobajousai, Children, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, M/M, iwaoi - Freeform, kid iwaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-08 06:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6842839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaudy_teke/pseuds/gaudy_teke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iwaizumi turned just in time to avoid Oikawa's head colliding with his.<br/>"Iwa-chan!"  It was muffled, but he could definitely hear it around the fabric of his sweatshirt.<br/>"Hey Shittywaka" He chuckled in reply.  "Did you miss me?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meeting

It started as a regular day. Hajime was the first in his family to wake up, throwing off the covers and running down the hall to get his parent’s room.

“Mom! Dad! Get up!” He jumped on the bed between his parents and rolling off over his dad, as usual.

“That time already?” His dad smiled sleepily, tousling the boys dark hair, causing it to stand straight up. 

“Yeah! I wanna go to the park!” Hajime’s mom smiled, throwing off her covers.

“Then I guess we better get you some breakfast.” Hajime cheered and ran to the kitchen. His parents looked at each other, chuckling, before throwing on some clothes and following. Soon after, Hajime, armed with his favorite bug net, was running around the park after a butterfly. After a long chase, the butterfly chose to land on top of a flag in the sandbox. Hajime saw a second too late that the flag was attached to a sandcastle. Desperately, he tried to swerve at the last moment.

“Noooooo!” Shocked, Hajime stumbled, tripping over his feet, and tumbled into the boy who had rushed up to save his castle, and sent them both tumbling over the edge of the sandbox. They landed in a heap. 

“Owwww.” They said it in unison, clutching an elbow and a knee, scrapped against the wood boarder of the sandbox, before looking at each other in shock. Hajime took in the boy’s brown hair, cut short to his head, his big brown eyes, and the green alien on his shirt, which stared back. The boy took in sharp hazel eyes, the plasters decorating his legs and arms, and the bug net, temporarily forgotten beside them.

“You were gonna destroy my castle!” The boy’s whiney tone caught Hajime’s ears and he broke his staring contest with the alien.

“What?” The boy pouted.

“I said, you were gonna destroy my sandcastle with that stupid net!” Hajime bristled. That net was the best one he’d gotten yet! He’d had it for two years and it still hadn’t snapped.

“I was not! I was trying to dodge it!” 

“Tooru!” A woman ran up, grabbing her son’s shoulders. “Are you okay sweetheart?”

“It hurts mommy!” The boy, Tooru, cried, tears suddenly cascading down his cheeks. 

“Oh dear.” Hajime turned at his mother’s voice. “Hajime, what happened?” She bent down, pulling a plaster, a water bottle, and a tube of ointment she kept just for this purpose out of her purse.

“I was trying to avoid his stupid sandcastle and he startled me and we fell” His mother sighed, using the water bottle to clean his elbow before rubbing the ointment on and carefully applying the plaster.

“Hajime-“

“My sandcastle isn’t stupid!” Hajime and his mother turned to look at Tooru, who was too indignant about the sling at his castle to keep up the waterworks. His mother sighs.

“Tooru, what have we talked about? It’s just a sandcastle. You can’t just push people to get what you want.”

“I didn’t push him!” Tooru pouted. His mother sighed.

“Oikawa Tatsu. Do you mind if I use some of that?” She pointed to the ointment and plasters sticking out of Hajime’s mother’s bag.

“Not at all.” She smiled, handing the supplies over. “Iwaizumi Mitsu. That’s my husband over there.” She pointed to where Hajime’s dad was sitting, chatting with another man. Tooru’s mother smiled.

“A pleasure to meet you Iwaizumi-san. That’s my husband sitting next to him.” She poured the rest of the water over Tooru’s knee, ignoring his hissing. “We just moved into the neighborhood.” Hajime zoned the conversation out, focusing on the boy, who seemed to be trying not to cry for real this time. 

“It doesn’t hurt that much.” The words slipped out uninvited. Tooru’s head snapped up from his knee, eyes narrowing. Their mothers kept talking.

“To you maybe-“ He paused, before looking down guiltily. “I don’t remember your name.” Hajime blinked.

“Iwaizumi Hajime.” He hesitated, before awkwardly extending his hand. “And you’re Tooru…?”

“Yeah! Oikawa Tooru!” The boy smiled cheerfully, as though two minutes ago he hadn’t been bawling his eyes out, and shaking Hajime’s hand vigorously. “Nice to meet you Hajime!” Hajime, startled, pulled his hand back.

“Nice to meet you too…?” He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to think about this new boy. Tooru pouted.

“That wasn’t very sincere sounding.” He flinched as his mother finally applied the plaster.

“We should be going. It was nice to meet you Oikawa-san. Let’s go Hajime.” Hajime took his mother’s hand, letting her pull him to his feet, and grabbed his net. 

“Bye Hajime!” Tooru waved, smiling brightly again. Hajime wondered how many times he switched faces every day.

“Bye Tooru.” He left the park with his parents.

“The Oikawas seemed nice.” His father commented.

“Yes. They just moved into the new housing development at the end of our neighborhood.”

“They did?” Hajime looked up, interest sparked. He didn’t have a lot of friends in the neighborhood. Most of his school friends lived farther away, making playdates harder. It would be nice to have a friend in this neighborhood. Maybe Tooru could be his friend.


	2. The New Kid

The first day of school had Hajime bouncing. He couldn’t decide if he was nervous or excited. On one hand, he’d see all his friends again after practically not seeing them all summer. On the other, he hadn’t spoken to Tooru since the day they met. It wasn’t on purpose. They just never crossed paths again. But now Tooru couldn’t avoid him. His school was the only one that was close by. Tooru had to be going there!

“Mooom! Let’s go!” His mother, sitting on the couch, chuckled. She wasn’t even dressed yet, instead enjoying a nice cup of tea.

“Your father’s taking you today.” Hajime spun on his heel to his father, who sighed, looked mournfully at the rest of his breakfast, and pushed back the chair.

“Alright, alright. I’m coming.” Hajime cheered, slinging his backpack onto his shoulders in a wild arc, and throwing on his shoes. His father followed slower, but soon they were off. Despite having shorter legs, Hajime stayed at least two paces in front of his father’s leisurely stroll the entire way, often running ahead and waiting impatiently for him to catch up. Finally, they were at the school.

“I’ll see you this evening!” Hajime’s father yelled at his retreating back. Hajime spun around in a tight circle, waved to show that he heard, and ran into the building. He got his class and dashed into the classroom, looking for a friend, any friend. He saw Tooru almost at once. He was sitting at desk near the back of the room, where the window was. Hajime frowned. Didn’t Tooru know that only the troublemakers sit in the back? He started to walk forward, but Eiichi beat him to it. Eiichi’s father was very wealthy, or at least according to Eiichi he was. On seeing him coming, Tooru immediately brightened.

“Eii-chan!” Tooru cheered, before launching into a tirade of summer events. Hajime turned away. Of course someone like Tooru would go for someone like Eiichi. He had all the latest toys, money to spend in arcades. All Hajime had was his private bug net and a wild personality. Of course Tooru, who (from the brief encounter they had had by the sandbox) was a seemingly talented child, would want someone on his level.

“Hajime!” Hajime turned at the sound of his name, already smiling, before being tackled to the ground by his friends Hirohito and Taichi. 

“We haven’t seen you all summer!” Hirohito beamed down at him Hajime wheezed out a laugh and elbowed them to get off. Hirohito rolled off gracefully, but Taichi, who was one of the bigger kids in their class, clumsily stood before offering his hand to Hajime, pulling him up as well.

“Mom wouldn’t let me walk to your neighborhood alone and she and Dad were really busy all summer.” Hajime frowned and Taichi poked him in the forehead between his eyes.

“You’re doing the scary scowl again.” Hajime perked up.

“Really?!” Hirohito started laughing. 

“Why does that make you so happy?” His hair flopped over his eyes, causing Taichi to pointedly brush his own hair behind his ears to set an example.

“Cuz I wanna be feared! Like Godzilla!” 

“Why would you want to be Godzilla?” All three turned to see Eiichi’s friend, Kazue, smirking at them. “Godzilla’s stupid.” He pulled down his shirt, showing the immaculate creases on the uniform. 

“Godzilla isn’t stupid. He’s the best ever!” Hajime felt the need to defend his hero against Kazue, not even noticing his fists clenching. Hirohito and Taichi, who were less passionate about the debate, noticed the attention growing and tried to calm him down.

“C’mon Hajime. Class is about to start.” Hajime sent Kazue one last glare before looking around for three empty seats. Seeing this, Kazue and Eiichi immediately took the last adjourning seats in the front of the class, forcing them to sit in the back. When the teacher walked in, she glared at them. Hajime shrunk farther into his seat. He didn’t have the best track record in this school. If he got in trouble again, his mother would never take him back to the park. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tooru staring at him, and realized he picked the desk next to the boy. Tooru must have seen him staring, because his head whipped to the front so fast, Hajime winced in sympathy. 

The lessons droned on and on. Some of it was interesting, like dinosaurs, but it was mostly the boring stuff like math and literature. Hajime considered banging his head against the desk, just for the physical contact, but decided it would draw too much attention to himself. Still, his fingers itched for something to do. 

“We don’t hit people, remember Hajime?” His mother’s voice echoed in his head. “If we need to express emotion, we do it creatively.” Hajime sighed quietly. All he wanted to do was run around outside. Slowly as he zoned out the teacher, trees and grass found their way along the edge of his notes. He was so far gone, he didn’t see Tooru turn curiously to see what he was doing, or hear him gasp in awe, eyes transfixed. All he knew was that he was bored out of his skull and wanted to go outside already.

Finally, he heard the sound he’d been waiting for; the sound of the teacher letting them out for lunch and recess. Hajime bolted out of his chair, grabbing his lunch and racing to the playground, Hirohito and Taichi not far behind. 

“Finally!” Hajime spun around in a circle, arms outstretched, before plopping down on the ground beneath their tree (he, Taichi, and Hirohito had claimed it the year before). Hirohito laughed, having just caught up, and followed suit, doing a small circle before plopping down in the dirt beside Hajime’s head, and leaning his back against the tree’s sturdy trunk.

“She just kept talking! And talking and talking and talking!” Taichi said, pulling out his lunch. The other two followed suit, Hajime sitting up to lean against the tree with his friends.

“Itadakimasu”. It wasn’t quite in unison, with Hajime a syllable ahead of Hirohito and Taichi a syllable behind. Hajime frowned. He and Tooru had been in sync when they first met each other.

“Did your food offend you?” Hirohito asked, and Hajime looked at him to be met with a teasing smirk.

“I don’t like tomatoes.” Hajime carefully moved the offensive red blobs farther away from his tofu. 

“I’ll take them. And don’t talk when you’re eating. It’s rude.” Taichi leaned over, plucking the tomatoes out of Hajime’s box and plopping them in his own. Hajime nodded, and they ate in silence for a while, observing the playground. It took Hajime a moment to find Tooru, but once he did, he stood up abruptly.

“They’re bullying him!” Hirohito and Taichi looked up in alarm, and Hajime pointed to where Tooru was sitting on a swing, hands clenched around the chains holding it up, and surrounded by Eiichi and his friends.

“Let’s not get involved”. Hirohito looked nervous, and Taichi nodded vigorously behind him. “You know how Eiichi and his friends are.” Hajime blinked down at them.

“But they’re bullying him!” How could they sit there so calmly? Hajime could feel the blood rushing in his veins, the overflowing energy. His friends looked at each other in alarm before also putting aside their lunches and standing. 

“Hajime, I know you’re upset, but we can’t afford to step in.” Hajime knew that by ‘we’ they meant him. He couldn’t afford to step in, and they weren’t going to. 

“But we gotta help him!” He looked pleadingly at Taichi, then at Hirohito. Both of them had fear and regret in their faces. They weren’t going to help. “Fine. Stay here. I’ll be right back”. Hajime turned his back on their protests, walking towards Eiichi, blood still roaring.

“Hey!” They all looked up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hirohito and Taichi move toward the school. But he wasn’t focusing on them. He was focusing on Tooru, who had a few tear tracks running down his face. “Leave him alone!” Eiichi looked him up and down, smirking.

“Or what Hajime? Gonna beat me up good?” He stepped forward, forcing Hajime to look up at him. “Bring it shorty”. Hajime tensed, getting ready, when the teacher came.

“Hey! Boys! Back it off!” She grabbed Hajime by the arm, pulling him away from Eiichi. “Hajime-kun, what do you have to say for yourself?” Hajime looked down, fuming. He wasn’t in the wrong this time! He didn’t even hit the boy!

“He thought he was taller than Eii-chan, but Eii-chan proved him wrong! Cuz Hajime-chan is short!” A voice piped up. Everyone turned to look at Tooru, who quickly wiped the tears off his cheeks. Hajime was too shocked to register the short joke. Tooru was standing up for him? Against Eiichi? The teacher looked at all three boys suspiciously, but released Hajime’s arm and walked back toward the school. Eiichi turned on Tooru.

“You side with him? Why? He’s trash.” Tooru stared back, more defiant this time, and opened his mouth, but Hajime beat him to it. 

“You’re trash.” Looking back at the moment, Hajime admits it wasn’t the smartest thing to say, nor was it intended to ever leave his mouth. Eiichi slowly turned to look at him.

“What did you say, midget?” Hajime stared back, trying to make his scowl as intimidating as possible.

“I think he said, 'you’re trash’”. Eiichi growled, glaring at Tooru, but at that moment, the teacher called them back in. Eiichi turned away to walk back to class, but stopped and turned back.

“If any of you talk to either of these trash kings, they’ll be a cost.” He stared down all the students before walking back into the class. Hajime and Tooru stared after him, shocked. Hajime turned to Hirohito and Taichi. Taichi stared back for a second before looking away, turning toward the classroom. Hirohito hesitated, before handing Hajime the remainders of his lunch and fleeing after Taichi. Hajime sighed. He didn’t blame them. They didn’t want to get involved in the first place. He turned back to Tooru, who stared back with wide eyes.

“What are you looking at?” Hajime frowned. Tooru flinched.

“I’m sorry about your friends!” He yelled, before slapping his hand over his mouth. Hajime sighed. This alien kid was going to be interesting. But he was stuck with him now.

“It’s fine. They didn’t want to get involved.” He turns to look back at where Taichi and Hirohito were standing and watched them flinch away from his gaze. “C’mon. We gotta get to class.” Tooru stared at him for a second before jumping off the swing.

“You still want to be my friend?” He caught up to Hajime, who had started walking. Hajime stared at him.

“Why wouldn’t I want to be?” Tooru looked down at his feet.

“I made your friends leave you. And apparently I’m trash.” Hajime tried to resist, but ended up flicking Tooru in the forehead anyway. Tooru yelped.

“Apparently we’re both trash. C’mon. Everyone’s waiting for us.” He grabbed Tooru’s wrist, pulling him towards the classroom. He didn’t see Tooru smile at his back.

**************

A little while later, during a particularly boring history lesson, Tooru looked down to see a note being slid onto his desk. Opening it revealed a small drawing of two blobs sitting on top of a scribbled heap he assumed was a mountain of trash. The blobs were labeled ‘Hajime’ and ‘Tooru’ and each blob had a little crown above its head. Below the picture, the caption read 'Hey Tooru, let’s really be kings, kay? It doesn’t matter if it’s trash, right? It even fits with your name. Trashywaka. See?’ This time, Hajime definitely didn’t miss Tooru’s smile.


	3. Survival of the Fittest

“Tooru!” Tooru burrowed further into his blankets. “Tooru, get up! It’s time for school!” Tooru turned over. He didn’t want to go to school, especially since the last couple of weeks. No one talked to him anymore! Tooru was a social creature, he needed attention! Tooru tensed before shaking his head vigorously. Hajime gave him attention, but they didn’t really talk. He heard a knock on the door and sighed a breath of relief. Whoever was there would distract his mom long enough for a couple more minutes of sleep.

“What are you doing still in bed?!” Maybe not. Tooru clutched the blankets tighter and heard his mother sigh.

“You want a try?” Tooru frowned from inside his cocoon. Who was she talking to?

“Get up dummy! You’re gonna make us late!” A weight fell on him, and Tooru, shocked, lost his hold on the blankets.

“Hajime?” He sat up, rubbing his eyes. Hajime scowled down at him over the pile of blankets he was holding.

“I was gonna walk to school with you, but you’re gonna make us late, so I’m gonna go.” He threw the covers back at Tooru’s face and slid off him.

“Noooo Hajime-chan! Walk with me! I’ll get ready fast, I swear!” Tooru pushed the covers off, leaping off of the bed towards the bathroom, missing the amused smile his mother gave him as he passed. 

“That did it. Nice job Hajime-kun.” Hajime blinked up at her from where he was standing dumbfounded in the middle of the room.

“Uhh… You’re welcome?” He rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortable. “I wake up my parents every morning, so…" Unsure of what to do while Tooru was getting ready, he looked around the room. 

“He really likes aliens, huh?” Tooru’s mother chuckled, looking at all the posters and plashes her son had around his room.

“Yes. We watched an alien movie with him and he was hooked.” Hajime nodded, and Tooru pushed back into the room, shirt half hanging from his shoulders. 

“Ready!” His mother clucked her tongue.

“Oh no you don’t. You can’t leave the house like that. Come here.” She pulled Tooru to her, straightening his shirt and doing up the last few buttons before tucking it into his pants. Tooru groaned, trying to wiggle away.

“Mom stop! I gotta go or Hajime-chan's gonna leave me!” His mother chuckled, straightening.

“Okay honey. Your breakfast and lunch are on the counter. Eat on the way?” Tooru nodded enthusiastically, grabbed Hajime’s hand, and pulled him down the hallway to the kitchen.

“Okay! Bye mom! Bye dad!” He grabbed the food, threw it in his bag, slipped his shoes on, and ran out the door, a grumbling Hajime stumbling behind. Hajume snatched his hand back once they were outside.

“You ran me into a wall.” He rubbed his shoulder, glaring at Tooru, before flicking him on the head.

“Sorry Hajime-chan!” Tooru smiled brightly, too thrilled with the fact Hajime had walked out of his way to walk with him to school to pay attention to the irritation. “Let’s go!” Hajime nods, falling in step with him.

“I brought an umbrella today”, he announced, and Tooru stopped dead in his tracks.

“Noooo! I forgot!” He half turns towards home, but Hajime grabs his arm and swings him forward again.

“We don’t have time! If they throw more at us today, you can hide behind mine.” Tooru brightens.

“Really? Ah, Hajime-chan, you’re so nice!” Eiichi and his gang had progressed slowly from taunts and insults (which had gotten them in trouble) to impromptu food fights (which didn’t get them in trouble only because it was impossible to tell who started it; sensei first suspected Hajime, but his lunchbox had been overturned and he had been crouching down around Tooru, both covered with food, which wasn’t promising about instigating the thing). Hajime looked at Tooru, blinking in surprise, before turning back to the walk, hand rubbing his neck. Tooru had noticed it was something he did when he was uncomfortable.

“I guess…?” Tooru smiled, skipping ahead. Today was off to a good start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter... I was gonna write more, but the last line felt so final, it'll just go into another chapter. Maybe.
> 
> Btw, Eiichi definitely tries to throw more food. And Hajime definitely deflects it with the umbrella. Tooru may or may not then take the umbrella, screaming something about aliens, and charge at 'the enemy', which definitely doesn't lead to a very uncomfortable parent-teacher meeting in which they discuss how umbrellas shouldn't be used as weapons, to which Tooru defends his position with "Aliens do what they want!" before turning in distress to a snickering Hajime.


	4. The confrontation

“Hey”. Tooru nudged Hajime, snapping him out of his reverie. They were sitting at the plastic table set right in front of the doors, where the teacher could watch them. After the food fight incident, she was a little hesitant to trust them out of her sight. Eiichi only fared slightly better, which was a plus. 

“What Trashywaka?” He had taken to calling Tooru this every now and then, a reminder of their promise to become the trash kings. Hajime thought they were almost there, but Tooru insisted that was too easy, that they were only knights at best right now. Kings weren’t bullied by wealthier people. Kings were respected and feared.

“You were zoning out again.” Hajime frowned, turning back to where he was staring at Hirohito and Taichi, whispering under their tree. Tooru, following his gaze, flinched a little. This was his fault, that Hajime lost his friends. Hajime deserved better. On the other hand, he was really enjoying be Hajime’s only friend and therefore the sole recipient of his kind nature.

“That’s our tree.” He said it quietly, staring at said tree with a quiet longing. “I picked it out last year cuz it had the best shade. And there was a beetle on it that I had to protect from Eiichi.” Taichi and Hirohito seemed to sense they were being stared at, because they looked up. Taichi immediately looked away, but Hirohito stared back. Hajime gave a nod, looking away for a second before looking back, and Hirohito copied the movement. They grinned at each other before turning away. Tooru felt a pang of envy.

“Who cares about them? I’m your friend!” He tugged on Hajime’s arm. Hajime quirks a smile.

“Yeah.” It’s such a simple statement, Tooru kind of feels guilty. Then he looks at Hajime’s lunch.

“Hajime-chan! You didn’t finish eating!” He pointed to the slices of bread still sitting in Hajime’s lunchbox. Hajime frowned at them.

“It’s milk bread. I don’t like it.” He turned to Tooru, curious. “You want it?” Tooru frowned.

“I’ve never had it. And why would I want food you don’t?” Hajime shrugged.

“Different taste buds?” He smirked. “It’s disgustingly sweet, like your personality around Aiko-san.” Oikawa Aiko was Tooru’s brother’s wife, who would bring sweets to the house for Tooru if he asked. Tooru opened his mouth, indignant, and Hajime took the opportunity to shut him up by shoving the milk bread almost down his throat. Tooru choked a little before chewing it, giving Hajime a reproachful look. Hajime watched, amused, as Tooru’s eyes widened.

“Oh my God Hajime. This is the best stuff ever!” He said around his mouthful, already reaching for the remaining slices. Hajime chuckled.

“Thought you might like it. Help yourself.” He made a vague gesture to the now empty lunchbox, taking amusement in Tooru’s puffing cheeks as he tries to chew three slices at once. 

“Don’ min’ if I do” Tooru attempted a smile around the food, and Hajime crinkled his nose.

“Gross.” Tooru pouted, or pouted as much as he could with the food in his mouth. The result had Hajime sliding off the bench laughing.

“Non noice Hashme-shan!” Tooru complained, sending Hajime into another spurt of laughter. “Mean Hashme!” Tooru finally swallowed the last of the milk bread, whacking Hajime in the shoulder with his foot. Hajime looked up to Tooru’s pout and, seeing he wasn’t actually upset, poked him in the nose. Tooru jerked back, affronted, and Hajime dissolved into giggles again.

“Mean!” Neither boy saw Eiichi and Kazue walk up to the table until they were already there.

“Well, well. Aren’t the two outcasts getting along so well. Tooru’s head snapped up and Hajime stopped laughing, scrambling to his feet beside Tooru.

“What do you want Eiichi?” Hajime’s fists clenched, and there was a gleam in his eye. Tooru felt it too. The blood pumped through his veins. He wanted to take this boy down. 

“I just wanted to know if either of you were sorry about getting food in my hair last week yet.” Eiichi smiled, or at least attempted to. All Hajime and Tooru saw was a swarm grimace.

“You were throwing food at us!” Tooru said indignantly.

“And you tried to run us through with an open umbrella.” Kazue countered. “And you’re losers and we’re not.”

“Just because you have the highest grade in the class, Kazue, doesn’t mean you’re better than us!” Tooru snarled, and Hajime internally winced in sympathy. Tooru had gotten a low score on his last test. Kazue had gotten a perfect one. The teacher had called him a genius.

“Just because you and Shorty here got low scores doesn’t mean the test was hard. It wasn’t. It was easy. You’re just stupid.” Both Hajime and Tooru’s faces darkened.

“You’re going to regret that.” It was an icy tone in unison. Eiichi’s eyes widened, and he took a step back before remembering he was supposed to be the tough guy.

“Yeah? Bring it, trash.” He and Kazue smirked. Hajime took a step forward, fists clenched and ready for a fight, when someone grabbed his arms.

“Hajime, no! He’s not worth it, remember?” Hajime turned, surprised, to Hirohito, who was holding on to one arm. Taichi hesitated, hovering nearby, before lightly restraining his other arm.

“If you punch him again, you’re gonna get expelled.” Tooru looked at Hajime curiously. Again?

“But he deserves it! He’s a bully!” Hajime shouted. Around them, children stopped playing.

“Maybe he does, but you can’t throw it! You need to be here! Who else can chase the bugs away?” Hajime stilled, thinking about it and looking at his friends, who smiled back encouragingly. 

“That’s true…” He unclenched his fists. Tooru felt a pang in his chest. Now he was gonna be alone again. Why would Hajime pick him over his old friends?

“Lovely heart to heart. I thought Eiichi said not to talk to trash.” Kazue said, stepping forward and pushing Hirohito lightly in the shoulder. Hajime tensed again.

“Back off Kazue.” Tooru thought the scowl he gave the boy could almost be Godzilla worthy. “We’re done talking to you.”

“Yeah!” Tooru echoed. “And you Eii-chan! I bet all your Daddy’s money couldn’t save you now!” He started to make a spaceship sound, but Hajime glared at him and he stopped.

“Save me from what, trash?” Tooru beamed.

“From us! We don’t wanna be your friends, you meanie! And we’re not apologizing!” Eiichi drew himself up to his full height.

“You’re going to regret that-“ Hajime interrupted him.

“No we’re not. We don’t want to be friends with a- a- an asshole!” Hajime had no idea what the word meant, but judging from their reactions, Tooru and Eiichi did (Tooru looked at him in awe before snickering and Eiichi slowly turned redder and redder).

“What did you call me?” Hajime refused to back down from his stare. Godzilla never backed down from anything.

“An asshole. You’re an asshole. Now leave us alone.” His voice took a commanding tone, causing Tooru to stop snickering. Looking around, he saw other kids coming closer, watching the showdown. They were watching to see what Eiichi would do. Tooru smiled. He could work with that.

“You punk-“ Eiichi threatened, but Tooru cut him off.

“What are you going to do, Eii-chan? Shut us out? We’re already there. Oh, and please shut Hiroshito-kun and Taichi-kun out with us. The more the merrier right?” He smiled as big as he could, tilting his head to the side. “Keep throwing us trash and we’ll make a castle and overthrow you. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Yeah!” Hajime cheered, and to his surprise (but not Tooru’s), several other voices echoed with his. 

“You’re mean, Eiichi!”

“I want my firetruck back!”

“You’re not the boss of us!”

“What is going on out here?” The teacher stormed out. Immediately, there was a wave of complaints.

“Eiichi’s bullying us!”

“He’s not playing fair!” 

“He stole my toy!” Hajime looked at Tooru, awestruck, and Tooru stared back. He didn’t think it would have escalated like this. The teacher turned to Eiichi.

“Himura-kun, I am very disappointed in you. Come in right now.” She grabbed his arm, pulling him into the school. The kids looked at each other, silent, before cheering. Tooru turned to Hajime just in time to see him get tackled by Taichi and Hirohito.

“That was so cool!” Hirohito cheered. “You’re the best Hajime!” Hajime grinned, pushing them off.

“Lets play tag!” Hajime brightened up at Taichi’s suggestion.

“Yeah!” Tooru pouted, but stopped when Hajime looked at him.

“C’mon Tooru! Let’s play tag!” Tooru brightened. Maybe he wouldn’t be forgotten after all!

“Okay!” He leapt off the bench. Taichi turned to Kazue.

“Do you wanna play too?” Tooru froze.

“No! He can’t play with us! He’s mean!” Kazue looked at him.

“I was only friends with Eiichi for the same reasons the rest of you were.” Tooru could tell he was lying, could see the lies oozing out of his pores, but no one else seemed to.

“It’s okay Tooru. Kazue-chan is cool! He’s so smart!” Taichi said, beaming at Kazue, who smiled back. Tooru looked at Hajime, who shrugged.

“We’re the trash kings now for real, right? He can play with us as long as he follows the rules.” Tooru wondered what divinity had given Iwaizumi Hajime so much compassion. He wants to punch the for overdoing it. Hajime stretched out a hand, poking Tooru in the forehead.

“You’re the demon!” He grinned and ran off. Tooru scowled before running off as well.

“I hate geniuses.”


	5. The Alien

Tooru looked at his aunt, head cocked.

“Pregnant? You’re gonna have a baby?!” He couldn’t decide whether he’s excited or upset that he wouldn’t have her and his brother’s undivided attention anymore, leaving his face contorted in a weird smile. 

“Yes Tooru. We’re not sure if it’s gonna be a boy or a girl yet, but we’ll know in another couple of months or so.” Tooru decided he was excited. For now at least.

“Cool! What do you think you’ll name them? Is it strange being pregnant? Does it feel like there’s an alien in you?” He gasped. “It probably does, doesn’t it? Do you-“ The doorbell rang, cutting him off.

“Hajime!” Forgetting the alien baby growing in his aunt’s belly, he rushed to the door. He had forgotten Hajime was coming over today! Hajime smiled awkward in the doorway.

“Hey Oikawa.” He rubbed the back of his neck, tongue unfamiliar with the name. Tooru frowned.

“Since when have you called me that?” Hajime shrugged.

“Shika told me people make fun of you if you use first names in junior high.” Shika was Hajime’s older sister, who he trusted in everything. Tooru pouted, going from mildly offended to mostly offended in about two seconds. Was he not special enough?

“Who cares? I’m still gonna call you Hajime!” Hajime frowned. 

“You can try, but I’ll punch you.” Tooru flinched. Ever since Shika had told him that it was good to express emotions, Hajime had gotten a lot scarier. His punches also hurt.

“Fine, fine Iwai-Iwa-“ Hajime stopped trying to push past him, looking half amused and half offended.

“Iwaizumi. Toor- Oikawa, you’ve known me for what, four years? Shouldn’t you know that?” Tooru scowled.

“I know what your last name is! It’s not my fault that it’s so hard to say!” Hajime was looking less offended and more amused at every attempt Tooru made at pronouncing his name, and elbowed his way by him to step fully into the house. Toeing off his shoes, he shouted a greeting over Tooru’s now very agitated and blubbery shouting.

“Welcome Hajime-kun!” Aiko greeted him from the living room. “Did Tooru tell you yet?” Hajime frowned, turning to Tooru.

“Tell me what?” Tooru stopped blubbering, turning to look at Hajime with excitement.

“Auntie’s has an alien!” Aiko laughed.

“What he means is that I’m pregnant. We found out last week.” Hajime smiled at her.

“Congratulations Oikawa-san.” Aiko smiled.

“So formal so sudden. Don’t call Mamma that. She’ll get mad.” She winked at him and Hajime nodded.

“Okay.” He was going to say more, but Tooru grabbed his hand, pulling him to his room. 

“Come on Iwai! Let’s go play!” Hajime scoffed, grabbing the volleyball, their newest game (first were the space pirates, then the mighty explorers, now volleyball).

“Iwai? Iwaizumi.” Tooru frowned.

“It doesn’t work! It’s too long and weird.” He thought for a minute while Hajime spluttered. “I know! You’ll be Iwa-chan!” 

“What? No! Iwaizumi!” Hajime threw the ball at his head, where it bounce off with a satisfying clunk. Tooru grabbed his head in mock pain.

“Nooo Iwa-chan! You almost hit my face!” He had gotten vainer ever since he realized girls said he was cute and it ticked Hajime off. He had also finally gotten permission from his mother (no doubt by consistent whining and pouting) to let his hair grow out more. It was almost to his eyebrows now. 

“Shut up Trashywaka! You’re being annoying!” Hajime grabbed the ball again and chased Tooru out the door. They ran all the way to the park, where they collapsed in the grass, panting and grinning at each other. 

“I won.” Hajime managed to say around gulps of air. Tooru sat up.

“No you didn’t! You never hit me!”

“I beat you to the park.”

“You wouldn’t have if I had known it was a race!” Hajime sat up as well, feeling competitive.

“You want a rematch?” Tooru shook his head.

“No! I wanna play volleyball!” He clambered to his feet, snatching the ball from Hajime and offering a hand. Hajime took it, hauling himself up.

“Okay. Don’t hit yourself in the head again this time.”

“That was one time Haj- Iwa-chan!”

“Just one?”

“Shut up! It won’t happen again! Let’s start!"


	6. First Day

Tooru crossed his fingers, mumbling a little prayer, before stepping into his new classroom. First day of junior high and he and Hajime had been separated during introductions (stupid last names). The cheer he gave seeing Hajime at a desk near the windows turned heads. Hajime closed his eyes in silent defeat before looking at his best friend. Of course Tooru would make a dramatic entrance.

“Iwa-chan!” Tooru bounded over to Hajime’s desk, claiming the one in front of him. His eyesight was getting worse and worse, so he wanted to be closer to the board. Hajime flicked his neck, causing Tooru to yelp.

“Shut up Trashywaka.” Tooru pouted.

“Mean Iwa-chan!” It had taken a lot of the summer, but they had finally gotten the hang of the last names (or, in Tooru’s case, the nickname). “You should be nicer to this perfection!” Hajime snorted.

“Perfection? I thought we were trash.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a group of girls giggling, pointing at them and whispering. Tooru followed his line of sight and smiled, waving at the girls.

“Hello!” The girls waved back before turning back to their circle, giggles and whispers intensifying. Hajime frowned. That was weird.

“What do you think they want?” Tooru shrugged. 

“I dunno. Maybe they want to be our friends.” He lit up. “Iwa-chan! Maybe they want to be our girlfriends!” Hajime socked him gently on the shoulder. 

“Don’t do anything stupid until you know for sure.” Tooru nodded, but his eyes still sparkled and took a far-away look. Hajime sighed. He wasn’t listening to him. Just then, the bell rang and the teacher walked in. Everyone straightened and rushed to a desk. Well, everyone but two boys in the back, who were still snickering over something the dark haired one was hiding under the desk they were sitting at. The other boy had faded blue hair. The teacher coughed pointedly, and the boys looked up, still smirking.

“Busted.” The blue haired boy said. His friend snickered.

“What? We can’t share a desk?” The teacher glared at them and the blue haired boy slid off his portion of the desk’s chair and into the chair of the adjacent desk. The teacher turned back to the board and Tooru pulled out a notebook. He heard Hajime rustling behind him and turned to see him already looking bored, head propped up with one hand while the other idly doodled what looked like the start of a dragon on the edge of the paper. Hajime had always had trouble paying attention in class, which admittedly gave him a leg up on his drawing abilities, but Tooru couldn’t imagine what it must do to his grades. He turned back to the front. Finally, the lunch bell rang.

“If everyone could find somewhere else to be for the next ten minutes, I should like to speak to Matsukawa-kun, Hanamaki-kun, and Iwaizumi-kun privately.” Tooru’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Hajime, who groaned and slid his head off of its perch on his hand and onto the desk.

“Go Oikawa. I’ll find you later.” The desk muffled his words slightly and Tooru hesitated before standing up with everyone else.

“I’ll meet you under a tree out front?” Hajime nodded, head still on the desk, and Tooru left. He walked until he found a vending machine and bought two juices, one for him and one for Hajime, thinking hard. What could the teacher possibly want from Hajime?

 

Hajime knew exactly what this was about. He wished they would have gotten over this by now. He had punched Eiichi in the face in first grade. First! He had gotten so much better at controlling his temper since then! Plus Eiichi was a special case and a bully. He turned his head, still resting on the desk, and saw that Hanamaki and Matsukawa must be the boys who had caused the commotion earlier. The teacher sat down behind his desk.

“Boys, come here.” Hajime sighed, shoving his school supplies back in his bag before walking up to the desk. The other two boys took their time, chatting and snickering before ambling up to the desk as well.

“Now boys, the three of you came from your last schools with some disturbing notes in your folders. I will not tolerate such things here. Do you understand me?” The Hanamaki and Matsukawa looked at each other before turning back to the teacher.

“By ’such things’ you mean… what?” The boy with blue hair asked, smirking slightly. The teacher frowned.

“I mean not hacking into the school computers to change all the lesson plans into memes. I mean no smart talking in class.” He turned to look Hajime straight in the eyes. “I mean no picking fights or resorting to physical violence. Do I make myself clear?” Hajime looked away, towards the window. Did he really have to go through this? All he wanted was to go sit outside in the sun with Tooru.

“Earth to grumpy face. Do you come in grumpy face?” Hajime looked back at the grinning duo, startled. Tooru would like these two.

“DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?” The teacher was obviously fed up with them.

“Yes sir!” The boys chorused, Hanamaki and Matsukawa drawling the words out and Hajime dutifully (if a little bored sounding) producing them. The teacher looked down at papers on his desk and the boys took it as their sign to leave. 

“So you punched someone grumpy face?” The blue haired boy said, catching up with Hajime, his friend not too far behind.

“A long time ago. I wish they’d let it go.” He turned to look at the other boy curiously. “You hacked into your teacher’s computer?” The boy shook his head, blue hair flopping from side to side.

“Nope, that was Matsukawa. He’s the techie. I’m just an excellent diversion.” He struck a pose in the middle of the hallway and Hajime snickered. The boy grinned at him, pleased. “I’m Hanamaki Takahiro”.

“Iwaizumi Hajime”. Hajime said, sticking out his hand. Hanamaki shook it, grinning. The other boy came up on Hajime’s other side.

“Matsukawa Issei”. Hajime offered him his hand too, and immediately regretted it when Matsukawa, with a devilish smile, gripped it firmly, sending a small electric shock up his arm. Hajime jerked his and back, and Hanamaki snickered before high fiving with Matsukawa.

“Good one!” They turned back to Hajime, who was rubbing his hand. “Where are you going for lunch?”

“I’m meeting Oikawa out front.” He hesitated. “Do you want to come too?”

“Is Oikawa the annoying brunette?” Hajime hesitated, torn between agreeing that Tooru was annoying and defending his friend. Luckily Matsukawa understood.

“If we come, can I shake his hand?” He held up the shocker and Hajime smiled wickedly.

“Do it.” They walked to the front, laughing and chatting with each other. Tooru, who had buried himself in the shade under the biggest tree, looked up excitedly when he heard Hajime’s laugh. Seeing the other two with him gave him a bit of a pause, but when Hajime looked around for Tooru, Tooru still waved and yelled.

“Iwa-chan!” Hajime turned, still smiling and walked towards him.

“Hey Oikawa.” The two boys looked at each other before draping themselves over Hajime’s back, each with their chin on one of his shoulders.

“Hey Oikawa.” They drawled the word out, smirking. Tooru looked at them suspiciously and Hajime shook them off.

“Oikawa, this is Hanamaki and Matsukawa.” Tooru frowned internally at how comfortable Hajime said their names, but hid it with a smile.

“Oikawa Tooru, the one and only!” He extended his hand, realizing too late that all three of them had wicked smirks. Matsukawa grabbed his hand and shook firmly, and Tooru yelped at the jet of electricity that sped up his arm. He jerked his hand back, falling backwards against the trunk of the tree. The other three boys laughed.

“Oh my god, that was priceless” The blue haired one gasped out, clutching his chest. Tooru pouted at Hajime, who was also snickering.

“Mean Iwa-chan! You should have warned me!” Hajime grinned at him.

“Never.” Hanamaki snickered before offering a high five. Hajime hesitated, and Hanamaki turned his hand palm up so Hajime could see that there wasn’t a shocker. Hajime grinned before smacking his hand. 

“Oi, Oikawa. Move over.” He not so gently nudged Tooru over before settling on the ground next to him. Hanamaki and Matsukawa also sat down, Matsukawa crossing his legs and Hanamaki using his side to prop himself up with. They all brought out their lunch boxes. Hajime frowned, glaring at the tomatoes sitting next to his precious agedashi tofu before sliding them and the milk bread onto the container’s lid and passing it to Tooru. Tooru similarly filled his lid with peppers and the juice box he had bought him and passed it to Hajime. Matsukawa watched the exchange, snickering.

“And here we were worried you’d judge us for our food sharing.” He and Hanamaki then proceeded to dump about half of their lunch each into the other’s lunchbox. Tooru snickered, mixing the tomatoes in with the rest of his lunch and setting the milk bread in the coveted empty spot in his lunchbox that he saved just for such goodies. Hajime similarly opened the juice box and dumped the peppers into the rest of his lunch. 

“We just trade the foods we don’t like. What you’re doing is truly sharing.” Tooru waved a vague hand at the pair, who seemed unaffected by the statement. 

“We share everything.” Matsukawa said in a monotone voice.

“Everything.” Hanamaki echoed in a more mischievous tone. Tooru and Hajime looked at each other. These two were weird. Tooru cleared his throat.

“So… Uh… What were your names again?” He rubbed the back of his neck, an unconscious movement he had picked up from Hajime over the years, and gave his most charming smile. Matsukawa and Hanamaki looked unimpressed and Hajime lightly whacked him in the head.

“Stupid.” Hanamaki looked at Matsukawa before standing, brushing imaginary dust off of his clothes, and bowing to Tooru.

“Hanamaki Takahiro at your service Your Highness.” Matsukawa also stood up and bowed.

“Matsukawa Issei, his loyal steed.” Hajime snickered and Tooru pouted at their mockery before assuming a commanding air.

“My loyal subjects, thou art brave and noble and shall now commence on a wild chase of the sunshine.” He motioned the pranksters to kneel, which they did, smirking. Hajime was silently chuckling behind him.

“I now knight you, oh blue haired one, Sir Makki.” Tooru tapped the boy on both shoulders with a pencil before turning to the other.

“And you, loyal steed, shall henceforth be named Mattsun.” Instead of tapping the boy on the shoulders like he’s knighting him, Tooru whacked him on the head.

“Ow!” Matsukawa rubbed the top of his head, looking at Tooru reproachfully. Tooru smirked.

“That’s for shocking me.” He turned back to the recently knighted Sir Makki. “Now Sir Makki, begin your quest!” To his and Hajime’s delight, Hanamaki sprung up, jumping on Matsukawa’s back.

“Forward charge my loyal friend!” He yelled, wrapping his legs around Matsukawa’s sides, an arm around his neck, and another pointing towards the nearest patch of sunshine. Matsukawa played along, galloping valiantly around the patch while Hanamaki grabbed at the air, shouting about how the tricky light was evading his attempts. Tooru and Hajime doubled over laughing.

Eventually, Matsukawa got tired and, without warning, unceremoniously dumped his rider. Hanamaki fell, cursing the gods and despairing at his luck. Matsukawa solemnly helped him to his feet and they rejoined the other two by the tree.

“That was great.” Hajime said, still smiling. The other two grinned.

“We know.” They chorused. Tooru snickered before turning to Hanamaki.

“Okay Makki, I have to know. Why is your hair blue?” Hanamaki shrugged.

“Why can’t it be blue?” He lowered his voice conspiratorially, leaning in. “Who says it’s blue?” Tooru’s eyes grew wide.

“It’s not blue? Did aliens do that? Have you met an alien Makki?” Hanamaki drew back, alarmed, and Hajime sighed, burying his face in his hands.

“And his inner nerd emerges. Calm down Trashywaka.” Hanamaki snickered. 

“It’s alright. I might dye it red next week.” He leaned back, extending his arms behind him. Tooru sighed.

“And here I finally thought that I could prove to Iwa-chan that aliens existed.” He looked at the other boys, curious. “Have you two decided on a club yet?” Matsukawa nodded, looking a little bored. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna try for the volleyball team.” Tooru and Hajime both looked up, interest peaked.

“Really? Us too.”

“Yeah! We could all play together!” Tooru cheered. The boys kept talking about volleyball until the bell rang again and they had to go inside. As they slid into their seats, Tooru looked back at Hajime and grinned. Junior High was going to be amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I just noticed that I've been spelling 'Trashykawa' as 'Trashywaka' this entire time... However, I'm too lazy to fix it, so just note that I admit my mistake and mentally change it please? Also, I saw a alien emoji and took it as a heavenly sign to continue writing this.


	7. Let's Make the Team

Tooru stood awestruck at the opening of the volleyball gym. Hajime stopped a couple steps behind him, taking in his surroundings with a pensive face. Neither had actually ever played in a gym, just by themselves over the park’s net. Matsukawa came up behind them, giving them a little push.

“Yes oh lordship, we know it’s impressive but you gotta move. You’re blocking the doorway. He and Hanamaki nudged their way past them, looking for the locker room. Hajime nudged Tooru, silently encouraging him forward, and the followed the other two boys.

“Have you ever played a real game Mattsun?” Tooru asked, changing out of his school uniform and pulling knee pads out of his bag. Matsukawa looked at him amusedly, pulling on a practice shirt. 

“Still with the nickname?” Hajime snorted, pulling his kneepads up. 

“Get used to it. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be ‘Iwa-chan’ for the rest of my life.” He slipped on his gym shoes and bent to tie them. Hanamaki snorted, doing the same.

“Good to know. We’ve played a couple games in elementary school. You?” Hajime shook his head.

“Nope. We started playing this summer.” He looked at Tooru. “Tie your shoelaces Trashykawa.” Tooru yelped, hastily bending down to tie them and they all walked back into the gym together. It was easy to tell the first years from the others; their practice clothes were mismatched while the club members all had matching practice outfits. A tall boy with short dark hair and intimidating eyes walked up to where all the first years were huddling, watching the practice.

“Hello. I’m Uchida Noritaka, third year captain. Do you all have your forms?” Tooru froze and Hajime rolled his eyes, pulling two folded forms out of his pocket.

“I knew you would forget, so I filled yours out for you.” He placed them on top of the stack. Hanamaki turned to Matsukawa, who also rolled his eyes, grinning, before producing two crumpled forms from his pocket.

“I got yours.” Hanamaki grinned before giving him a high five.

“Thank you.” Uchida gave the forms to a boy behind him, who ran them to the coach. “Don’t just stand there and watch. Sakurai-kun, take over.” He walked away, yelling at the team, who quickly formed two lines. The new boy had lighter hair and a kind smile.

“Hello. I’m Sakurai Souji, second year vice captain. If you would state your names and positions?” Hajime looked over at Tooru, giving him a reassuring nod. They had spent several days trying all the positions and choosing their favorite. One by one, each boy stepped forward.

“Hanamaki Takahiro. Wing spiker.” Hanamaki said, looking bored.

“Iwaizumi Hajime. Wing spiker.” Hanamaki offered him a high five, and Hajime took it, grinning. Tooru stepped up and took a deep breath.

“Oikawa Tooru. Setter.” Sakurai looked up, interested. He appraised Tooru for a second before moving to Matsukawa.

“Matsukawa Issei. Middle blocker” Sakurai frowned at him.

“Matsukawa, where are your kneepads?” Matsukawa shrugged.

“Don’t need ‘em. They actually constrict my movements.” Sakurai paused, seemingly debating whether he should push the issue or not, before letting it go.

“Alright. Wing spikers, please form a two lines there and there. Middle blockers and liberos, on the other side of the net. Setters, take a line.” Sakurai directed, motioning another boy over to assist with the other line. Tooru looked at the other boy, his competition, before taking the closer line. He was going to get on the team if it killed him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hajime quietly nudge himself to the front of his line. Tooru turned and Hajime looked right at him.

“Just like the park”. He mouthed. Tooru felt a rush of gratitude. All the nervousness went away. Well, mostly. Hajime kept eye contact until Tooru nodded.

“Okay.” He got in position and Sakurai threw a ball up into the air. Tooru moved, getting under it, and Hajime started running. Tooru tossed it as Hajime jumped, hitting the ball soundly and sending it over the net. Hajime landed, frowning at his hand, before turning to Tooru. 

“A little high.” Tooru nodded.

“Got it.” Hajime moved to the end of the line and the next boy got into position. The rest of the afternoon passed similarly. All the boys spiked, blocked, and received. A the end of it, Tooru was exhausted. Yet as he gulped water down, he also felt a strange feeling of euphoria, a feeling that said he could play and play for hours more and not get tired.

“First years! Line up!” Sakurai motioned them over before turning to Uchida. “All yours captain.” He stepped back. Uchida looked them over.

“This school’s team is a major contender for the tournaments. As much as we could use the extra players, there’s only six spots on the court at once. We can’t take all of you.” He looked down at his list. “If I call your name, you’re in. If not, I’m sorry, we can’t take you at this time. Feel free to try again next year. About a quarter of us will be graduating after this year; you’ll have a good chance.” He started reading off names. Tooru jumped when his name was one of the first called. Hajime flashed him a quick smile before focusing on Uchida. Matsukawa’s name was called next, then Hanamaki’s. Tooru saw Hajime suck in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. What would he do if Hajime didn’t make the team? Finally,

“Iwaizumi Hajime.” 

“Yes!” The word burst out from Tooru and he practically tackled Hajime to the floor.

“Get off Trashywaka!” Tooru looked down. Hajime was trying to look upset, but his smile of relief was winning. 

“Sorry Iwa-chan!” Tooru climbed off, offering him a hand up. Uchida cleared his throat.

“If you’re done, those who are now part of the club, please listen to Sakurai for a few last details. The rest of you are free to go.” He walked away to the locker rooms. About half of the first years followed. Sakurai smiled at the boys who remained.

“Congratulations. Please fill out these forms with your measurements on them so we can get you practice clothes, team jackets and sweatpants, and uniform sizes. Also make sure to claim a locker. If you want a lock, you’ll have to bring your own. Practice is an two hours before school starts and an hour after three hours after school. If you can’t make these practice, your starting position or place on the team may be in jeopardy. Also, any fighting in school or bad grades will lead to a suspension from the team or dismissal entirely. See you tomorrow!” He waved to them, handed out the forms, and left for the locker room. Tooru and Hajime looked at each other, grinning.

“Yes!” A statement in unison and a celebratory secret handshake that involved a double passing high-low high five and a fist bump. Hanamaki snickered.

“Of course you’d make it. If that’s what you can do just starting over the summer, they’d be dumb not to take you.” He and Matsukawa gave each boy a high five of their own.

“We’re on the team!"


	8. Strong

The new team was… Intense. Uchida ruled the team with an iron fist, although Tooru noticed right away he tended to leave the actual ruling to Sakurai. Sakurai was a nice boy, nice enough to look apologetic as he gave out the regime for the day. Every day was filled with drills, with occasional two minute water breaks. After practice, Tooru and Hajime would walk home together, too tired to say a word.

Slowly but surely, Tooru was starting to see how much he had to improve. Hanamaki was right; he and Hajime had gotten in on pure raw talent. Now they had to prove that they deserved to stay. 

“Only the strongest stay on the court. If you don’t have what it takes, you won’t be played.” Uchida told them in one of the rare times he actually talked to the team altogether. “I don’t care about your feelings; I care about getting to Nationals. Do you?” His speeches were brutal but did inspire a feeling of motivation. Tooru was itching to play his first official match. He just had to get stronger. He threw himself into the sport. Their first tournament, neither he nor Hajime got to play. Tooru stood on the edge of the line, too focused on the match to cheer. He could see the strategies being used, having studied many of them extensively over the last few months. Tooru started staying up later, watching matches, and staying back longer to practice until Uchida kicked him out.

Hajime watched the game, but he also watched Tooru. He was standing almost over the line, staring intently at the court, as usual. Tooru was getting obsessed with the sport. There were as many volleyball posters and volleyball memorabilia in his room as there were alien things. Hajime wouldn’t even be surprised if there were volleyball stickers stuck amongst the glow in the dark stars that occupied a good one fourth of his ceiling. Hajime could tell that Tooru was more tired than he used to be, less bouncy and with bags darkening under his eyes. His grades were also slipping, but Hajime doubted Tooru noticed.

Kitagawa Daiichi eventually lost in both the perfectionals and the Spring Tournament that year to Shiratorizawa Academy, an elite school. Hajime and Tooru watched silently as the ball slammed onto the floor on their side. Uchida slowly stood up, back straightening, looking at the ball bounce off the court. He looked then at Sakurai, then to where the first years and other non-regular players stood. Slowly, he motioned them to the line. As Tooru looked up from his bow, he accidentally made eye contact with a Shiratorizawa player. The boy was already pretty tall, with straight brown hair and a serious face. He sort of reminded Tooru of Hajime, or he did until he turned away as soon as he could to grab an already packed bag. Tooru looked back at Hajime, who promptly threw him his bag, which hit him in the face. Tooru yelped as Hanamaki and Matsukawa snickered. 

“Mean Iwa-chan!” Hajime snorted.

“You’ve been acting weird. Stop.” Tooru mentally flinched. Hajime thought he was acting weird? How so? Was he weird? He was so caught up in self-examination he didn’t see the flick to his forehead coming until Hajime had already administered it.

“See? Weird. Come on, the bus’ll be leaving soon.” Hajime gave him one more searching look before turning away towards the exit.

“Coming!” Tooru chirped, trying to hide his discomfort. Was he weird? Would people leave him because they thought he was weird? Would Hajime leave because he was weird? Tooru shuddered at the thought before running to catch up with Hajime.

*************

“You’re what?!” Tooru stared at Matsukawa in disbelief, and he and Hanamaki shifted uncomfortably.

“We’re switching schools. I’m moving next week and this other school is closer.” 

“But we play against them!” Tooru’s voice escalated in pitch and volume. Matsukawa shrugged.

“I know. I can’t help it. That’s just where I’m moving.” Tooru opened his jaw before snapping it shut again viciously, turning to Hanamaki.

“And what’s your excuse Makki?” Hanamaki grinned.

“My test scores depend on Matsukawa. It’s in my best interest to.” Tooru could feel his heart rate increasing. Two of his three real friends were leaving him. They didn’t like him anymore; he did something wrong. He opened his mouth to say something, when he felt a weight on his shoulder.

“We’ll miss you guys.” Hajime said, keeping one hand firm on Tooru’s shoulder, and fist bumping Hanamaki with the other. He then gave a fist bump to Matsukawa, squeezing Tooru’s shoulder until he yelped in pain, getting the message and offering his own fist to Hanamaki.

“Yeah! We’ll miss you Mattsun and Makki! And I look forward to crushing you on the court next year!” He flashed them a smile and Hajime scowled at him.

“Shut it Trashywaka.” They waved goodbye to their friends; this is where the roads to their houses split. 

“See you on the court!” Hajime yelled at their retreating backs, causing both boys to turn simultaneously and smirk at them before they kept walking. Hajime then promptly turned to Tooru.

“Alright, what’s up with you?” Tooru tried to smile his shock away.

“Nothing’s wrong!” He said smiling, and Hajime immediately whacked him on the shoulder.

“Tell me, don’t tell me, whatever. I’m just your best friend, what can I do?” Hajime stared him down before heading towards his front door.

“Park tomorrow?” Tooru blurted it out. “We should get all the practice we can over the summer. So we can be regulars next year. Hajime paused before half turning, giving a little smile.

“Park tomorrow.” He went inside. Tooru took a big breath. He had to be strong. He had to be strong so he could play next year. And he had to be strong so Hajime wouldn’t leave him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First glimpse of Ushijima! Next chapter will get to Kageyama, and the chapter after that will probably show some of Hajime's worries (besides the self destruction of Tooru). 
> 
> Also, because it's a little unclear and I couldn't fix it, Hanamaki and Matsukawa switch schools at the start of a new school year. The chapter ends after their first year at Kitagawa Daiichi.


	9. Doubts

Tooru slammed the ball as hard as he could, revealing in the smack that echoed on the other side of the court. Soon, he would get a service ace. He could feel it. Tooru turned, grinning at the newly elected captain, Sakurai. He had taken over for Uchida and his vice captain was another third year. Now that the show was his, Sakurai ran it slightly differently. He was more involved with the team and let members use the last twenty minutes of practice for whatever they wanted to work on personally. Tooru was currently practicing serves. 

“Good job Oikawa-kun.” Sakurai smiled at him and Oikawa gave a small smile back. There were plenty of things wrong with his serve. Sakurai was the captain, wasn’t he supposed to see them?

“Oikawa-sensei.” Tooru turned to see the new first year setter coming towards him. He had soft, curling black hair that Tooru thought almost (ALMOST) matched his for beauty, and clear grey eyes that edged towards black. He didn’t actually remember the first year’s name, though.

“Yes?” The first year hesitated, twiddling his fingers a little, before drawing a sharp breath.

“Would you mind explaining the new attack plans to me? I’m afraid I don’t understand it very well and Iwaizumi-san said that you could probably tell me.” Tooru looked over to where Hajime was working with the other second year setter. Hajime, seeing the glance, gave him a small nod. Tooru felt an increasingly rare burst of pride.

“Okay! Let’s sit over here!” He lead the first year over to the bench, grabbing a quick drink of water.

“What don’t you get?” The first year looked down at his hands, twisting his fingers, before pointing to one of the diagrams.

“This play here. Why would this wing spiker run up like that?” Tooru leaned forward to see the play better.

“Well, they do that because…” What seems like seconds later, he feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Sorry to disturb you, but they’re closing the gym.” Hajime shrugged, and Tooru looked up in surprise, seeing that the nets had already been taken down.

“Wow, time really flies!” He gave a little laugh and Hajime gave him a weird look. “Looks like we’ll have to wrap this up later, uh-“ Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Akaashi. His name is Akaashi Keiji.” Akaashi blinked up at Hajime, apparently surprised that he knew his name.

“Right! Do you wanna finish this at lunch tomorrow Akaashi-kun?” The boy gave a small smile.

“Alright. Thank you Oikawa-sensei. Goodnight Iwaizumi-san”. He gave them both a small bow before moving towards the lockers. 

“Night Akaashi!” Hajime called after him. Tooru frowned.

“Why doesn’t he call you sensei too?” Hajime shrugged.

“I asked him not to. It felt weird.” He never failed to amaze Tooru. Who wouldn’t want to be called sensei?

********************

Tooru looked down at the paper in disbelief. The red marks covering it stared back. He knew he had stayed up late the night before the test watching other team’s volleyball videos instead of studying, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad. He didn’t expect to fail. On hindsight, he should have. He was failing in all other things, why not school? The bell rang and he hastily shoved the paper into his bag, looking up in time to see Hajime walk in. 

“Yo.” Hajime looked at the boy sitting in the desk behind Tooru’s and the boy immediately got up, moving to another part of the room. Hajime took the now unoccupied seat. 

“Iwa-chan!” Hajime frowned.

“You know, if you’re not happy, you don’t have to smile at me.” Tooru’s smile faltered.

“What?” 

“You’ve been giving me all these cheesy smiles lately. It’s annoying. Please stop.” Hajime pulls out his lunch and Tooru’s smile slides off his face. He knew it. Hajime was getting tired of his failures. Hajime frowns again, leaning forward to lightly punch him on the shoulder.

“What’s up?” Hajime waited, but Tooru sat frozen, lost in frantic thoughts of how to make himself look better in Hajime’s eyes. Hajime’s eyes narrowed and he looked around for something that could have upset Tooru. He spied the test in his bag.

“Is this your last test?” He started to pull it out and Tooru came to, eyes widening in alarm.

“Iwa-chan, no!” He grabbed for the paper, but Hajime swatted his hand away, taking in the red marks and the low score decorating the top.

“Oikawa…” Tooru had never gotten such a low grade in his life. This was lower than what Hajime got occasionally.

“I know. It’s horrible.” I’m horrible, Tooru almost adds, but catches himself in time. He couldn’t seem needy. Hajime looked at him, wanting desperately to tell him that it wasn’t horrible, except it was.

“What happened?” Tooru buried his head in his arms.

“I dunno. I stayed up late and I didn’t understand the problems.” Hajime felt a burst of hope. He knew how to do this.

“I could help.” Tooru looked up suspiciously.

“You get worse grades than I do.” Hajime bristled a little.

“Not on this.” Tooru narrowed his eyes.

“Really? What’d you get on it?” Hajime hesitates, unsure whether he should say it while Tooru was in such a bad mood. Tooru grabbed his bag, ruffling through all the papers carelessly stuffed into it until he saw a similar test and pulled it out. Hajime quickly snatched the test and his bag out of Tooru’s hands, but not before Tooru saw the grade at the top.

“Iwa-chan?” Hajime shoved the paper back in his bag, running a hand through his hair.

“I wish you hadn’t done that.” 

“How did you get a perfect score?” Hajime fidgeted under Tooru’s accusatory grade. “You don’t even pay attention in class!” Life wasn’t fair.

“Um… I, um… I have ADHD, so I can’t concentrate very well, but I- I understand the concepts, I-I just can’t listen to someone drone on and on very well.” Hajime fumbled over the words, trying to explain himself. Tooru leaned back, affronted.

“Why didn’t you tell me?! I thought I was your best friend!” Hajime glanced around nervously as people started staring at them.

“I thought you knew!” He whisper yelled. “Why did you think I take pills in the morning when I sleep over?” Tooru threw his hands up, defeated but still upset.

“I don’t know! I never thought about it!” Hajime grabbed his arm to ground him.

“I’m sorry for not telling you. But I can help you with school stuff if you want me to.” Tooru nodded, taking a few deep breaths. Calm. Don’t be needy.

“Okay. Can you come over tonight?” Hajime nodded.

“Sure.”

*****************

The second the bell rang, Tooru shoved his notebooks into his bag, flying towards the volleyball gym. Volleyball time! He changed as quick as he could, running out onto the court with the others. 

“Let’s warm up!” Sakurai shouted, bringing the team into a circle. Tooru looked around, but he didn’t see Hajime. 

“Oikawa-kun.” Sakurai said, also noticing Hajime’s absence. “Did Iwaizumi-kun have something to do this afternoon?” Tooru shook his head.

“Not that I know of. Do you want me to look for him?” Sakurai nodded and Tooru headed for the locker room. He was going to call out when he heard voices. Hajime and Akaashi. Tooru hesitated, not wanting to open the door. 

“-carry these things around all the time. I used to get a new scrape or cut every day when I was little, so my mom just gave me the box and ointment so I could use it when I needed it.” There was a little scritching noise as Hajime opened what Tooru assumed was the plastic around a plaster. 

“Thank you Iwaizumi-san.” Akaashi’s voice was soft.

“No problem. We should probably clean this- Sorry, that was kind of intrusive of me.”

“No, it’s fine” Akaashi hurriedly assured him. “You just caught me by surprise.” Tooru could hear the sound of a bottle being opened.

“This is going to sting a little.” Akaashi made a hissing sound. 

“There. All done.” There was a rustling sound. “You know, if you didn’t show such emotion, they’d get bored and leave you alone.” 

“I know.” There was a pause. “But…”

Another pause. “It’s true?” 

“Yes…” Akaashi said it so quietly Tooru almost didn’t hear.

“Oh…” The noise stopped. “Well, that makes it even more important you don’t let them get to you. And don’t walk alone through that part of the school. Ever.” 

“Thank you Iwaizumi-san.” A pause. “Do you think they’ll expel you?” Tooru’s eyes widened. Hajime could be expelled? A sigh.

“I dunno. I mean, it was kinda in self defense, and I actually didn’t take my meds this morning, but I’ll probably be suspended from the team for a bit.” Another sigh. “Man, Tooru’s gonna kill me. Go on Akaashi.” Tooru jumped away from the door, retreating to a safe area away, and waited for Akaashi to find him. He came out soon enough and Tooru’s eyes widened when he saw him. His right eye was beginning to swell and darken, and there was a plaster on his cheek and a couple on his arms and legs. 

“Akaashi…” Akaashi grimaced.

“I uh… I got in a little trouble. Iwaizumi-san’s not coming today.”

“Why?” Tooru decided to play it safe, pretend he didn’t know what happened. Akaashi looked down at his feet.

“Um… He jumped in to defend me, and he beat a couple of people up, and now the principle’s seeing him.” Tooru’s jaw dropped. Hajime got in a fight? With his track record, he could be expelled! He was done with Tooru and was going to leave him alone!

“Oikawa-sensei?” Tooru snapped out of it, giving Akaashi a bright smile.

“He’ll be fine! Let’s go to practice!” Throughout practice, Tooru was a bit distracted. How could he improve so that Hajime would want to be with him again? He stayed later than usual, practicing his tosses and serves with water bottles. Hajime would be impressed if he made starting setter, right? Tooru tsked as the ball missed the water bottle. Of course not. Hajime was going to be suspended. He wouldn’t be playing or watching the games. Why would he? Tooru put the nets away by himself, feeling lonely. Hajime would sometimes stay back with him. It was a long walk home.

“I’m home! Tooru called, toeing off his shoes and slipping on his slippers. His mother poked her head out of the kitchen.

“Welcome home. Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes.” Tooru deflated a little with the welcome. His mother used to coo over him. Now she seemed busy all the time. His father was still there for him, came to every volleyball match, but he wasn’t exactly sure what to do with Tooru. Tooru made his way to his room, and was surprised to see Hajime lying on his bed, reading one of his volleyball magazines.

“What are you doing here?” Hajime looked up.

“Finally. You said I could come over so we could work on math.” He sat up, putting the magazine on the stack beside Tooru’s bed. Tooru stared at him, horrified.

“What happened to you?” If possible, Hajime looked worse than Akaashi. His eye and cheek were swollen and black, there were scrapes on his arms and legs, and plasters covered his knuckles. He was also holding himself carefully. Hajime winced.

“These third years were bullying Akaashi in the hallway. Things escalated a little.” Tooru had a flashback to when Hajime did that for him. He had come close to throwing a punch then too.

“And my mom let you into the house like that?” Hajime shrugged.

“She gave me a bag of ice for my head and face.” He picked up a now bag of liquid from the bed, showing it to Tooru. “My mom was actually surprisingly cool about it. I guess the concussion made her ease up a little.”

“You have a concussion?” Tooru’s voice rose. Hajime frowned.

“Didn’t I just say that? Come on, let’s do some math. I gotta go home soon.” Tooru opened his mouth to protest but Hajime shot him a glare with his good eye and he shut up.

“How long are you suspended?” Hajime drew a breath. 

“Until next season.” He pulled out his notebook. “But if it stopped those boys from bullying Akaashi and other first years and people like him, it’s worth it, right?” Tooru shrugged, dropping the subject. They started doing math homework.

“How did you not understand this?” Hajime asked, scratching his head. Tooru shrugged. 

“I dunno. I guess I didn’t study enough.” Hajime looked at him.

“You know, you’ll get thrown out of the game too if you don’t bring your grades up.” He stood up suddenly and, wincing, scooped up all of Tooru’s magazines and volleyball diagrams. “I’m taking these until your grades are the same as mine.” Tooru gasped, scrambling to his feet.

“Iwa-chan, you can’t!” Hajime stared him down.

“I will. Tooru, if we’re going to go to High School and play volleyball, you have to prove to them that you’re a good student too. Think about the tournament, not the individual game.” Tooru froze before releasing his hold on the magazines and sighing.

“Alright.” Hajime tucked the magazines into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

“And go to bed at a reasonable time. Idiot.” He cast Tooru a small smile before slipping out, calling to Tooru’s mom that he was leaving.

After that, Tooru threw himself into his studies. He still stayed late to practice, but instead of watching videos of volleyball plays, he studied. Eventually, Hajime came up to him after a game, smiling, and handed him back the magazines.

“Good job. And congratulations on the starting setter position.” Tooru beamed back at him.

“Thanks!” His smile faltered a little. “I wish you were coming to the Spring Tournament. There’s this Shiratorizawa kid who stares at me creepily and hits really hard.” He then gave a little smirk.

“You should punch him next.” Hajime scowled, socking him in the shoulder.

“Shut up.” 

***************

“Iwa-chan!” Tooru flew at Hajime as he stepped onto the court, almost knocking him over.

“Hey Trashywaka. Miss me much?” Hajime laughed, stumbling backwards. 

“Yeah! Ever since Akaashi-kun left to go to that prestigious school his parents wanted him to go to, it’s been quiet here.” Tooru let go of him, pulling him towards the net.

“Lemme toss to you!” Hajime snorted, getting into position.

“I feel like you’re abusing your third-year rights.” Tooru smirked at him.

“Captain-chan isn’t here yet.” The new captain had decided to democratize the process, being too lazy to actually run the thing, so Tooru called him Captain-chan to annoy him. Tooru grabbed a volleyball and tossed it to Hajime, who jumped, sending it slamming down on the other side of the net. Hajime landed, grinning.

“God, that felt good.” Tooru stared at him.

“How’d you do that?!” Last time he tossed to Hajime, the ball had significantly less force. Hajime blushed, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’ve been throwing to myself in the park. Getting into shape, that sort of thing.” The locker room doors opened, and people started coming out onto the court. Tooru turned to Hajime.

“Time to play.” Hajime rolled his eyes.

“First years, remember?” Tooru sighed dramatically.

“Riiiiight. Hopefully they’re good.” He stood side by side with Hajime as all the first years introduced themselves.

“ Kindaichi Yutaro. Middle blocker. I’ve been playing volleyball for one year.” Kindaichi was skinny, with a weird hairdo that seemed to stick straight up in a cone. Tooru thought he looked nervous.

“Kunimi Akira. Wing spiker. I’ve been playing volleyball for one year.” Kunimi had straight dark hair that was carefully parted around his face. Tooru thought he looked bored, if not a little tired.

“Kageyama Tobio. Setter. I’ve been playing volleyball since my second year of elementary school.” Kageyama had a similar hairstyle as Kunimi and seemed small, with wide, innocent, dark blue eyes. Tooru thought he looked like trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally gonna put Suga on their team for a while, but they would have recognized him later. So instead, have Akaashi (who will come back later in the story!). He had to leave before Kageyama came though, because he would have sorted Kageyama out (and three setters is a bit extensive). 
> 
> The next chapter, Revelations, will hopefully be written soon, and will feature the famous Kageyama-Oikawa showoff. And then, I promise, we'll see Iwaizumi's insecurities!


	10. Revelations

Kagyama was, putting it mildly, a terror, but no one besides Tooru seemed to notice. He obviously loved the game, but he couldn’t interact with others very well. Tooru could. So why was everyone flocking to Kageyama? 

“Wow Kageyama! Toss to me!” Kindaichi yelled, seeing Kageyama practicing. Kageyama brightened.

“Okay!” He got in position under the net, Tooru’s position, and tossed to Kindaichi, who spiked it over the net. 

“Very nice Kageyama-kun” The coach said, walking over. “With a little more practice, it’ll be perfect. You’re a natural.” Tooru bristled. Last time, the coach had told Kageyama he was a genius setter-wise. If this kept up, Tooru would be replaced.

“Trashywaka!” Tooru turned to come face to face with Hajime.

“You’re gonna pop the ball if you keep doing that.” Hajime pried the volleyball from Tooru’s grip. “C’mon, toss to me.” Tooru gave a wavering smile.

“Okay!” He got into position. Perfect. This had to be perfect. He threw it, watching Hajime hit it with a firm smack, sending it smashing through the second years, who wanted to try blocking. Hajime turned, giving Tooru a small smile.

“That was the best one you’ve thrown yet.” Tooru’s heart jumped. He wasn’t terrible! Hajime turned sideways, looking at something on the other court.

“You got a fan.” Tooru followed his gaze to see an awestruck Kageyama looking back at him. Kageyama immediately turned away, blushing at being caught staring. Tooru huffed.

“I prefer those fans.” He smiled and waved, winking at a couple of girls who were leaning over the railing. They blushed, waving back. Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Different type of fan, but whatever. Go again?” He got back into position. Tooru tossed to him until they were both too tired to go again. 

“How was that one?” Tooru asked from his slumped position against Hajime’s back. Hajime took another gulp of water.

“Good. A little to the left.” Tooru nodded, pleased that Hajime was giving him praise with the criticism and that he kept answering even after Tooru had asked hundreds of time.

“Got it.” He took a gulp of water and Hajime nudged him.

“Sit up straight. You’ll get more air.” Tooru grumbled, but moved himself into a sitting position.

“Are you my mom, Iwa-chan?” It had become sort of a joke between them. Tooru’s mother had gotten an international position in her work and was rarely home. When he told Hajime, he had (mostly) joked that Hajime could be his full time mom now. Hajime had delivered a solid blow to his stomach, knocking the air out. Now, Hajime settled for a glare.

“Don’t be a dumbass. Your mom’s home this week.” Dumbass was his new insult, as well as modifications to Tooru’s name, which included Assikawa and Shittykawa. Tooru blamed Shika for Hajime’s new potty mouth. Stupid stressed college students.

“Oikawa-san?” Tooru and Hajime looked up to see Kageyama standing in front of them, looking hopeful. “Will you help me with my serve?” Tooru shot up to a more upright position. 

“Ne Tobio-chan! Don’t wanna!” A surge of hatred filled him as he looked at the innocent blue eyes, and he made a face to conceal it. Kageyama wilted a little, and Hajime took pity on him, standing up.

“My serve’s not as good as his, but I can show you a couple points if you want.” Kageyama and Tooru both froze, looking at Hajime with matching expressions of shock. This brat was going to steal Hajime from Tooru too?

“Yes Iwaizumi-san!” Kageyama shouted, drawing attention to them. Hajime chuckled, ruffling his hair as he passed him for the closest court. Several of the other first years followed, curious. Tooru, still sitting on the bench, sulked. Fine. If that was how it was going to be, he would toss for the second years. 

“Iwaizumi-san?” Hajime turned from where he was watching Kunimi serve to look at Kageyama.

“Yes?” Kageyama fidgeted.

“Why doesn’t Oikawa like me?” Hajime winced internally.

“Uh… He’s just being a dumbass. He’ll get over it.” Kageyama cocked his head.

“I thought dumbass was an insult.” Hajime looked at him, startled, before chuckling.

“It is, but you can use it as a term of endearment. That’s how I use it, more or less. It’s what I say when I’m annoyed, but not annoyed enough to actually care.” Kageyama nodded, eyes wide.

“Okay.”

 

****************

“Tobio-chan’s a brat.” Hajime lightly whacked Tooru on the head.

“You’re so disrespectful to him, it’s surprising he’s put up with it so well. Kageyama’s a good boy.”

“By good you mean socially awkward and obnoxious?” Tooru kicked a rock in front of him, wincing as his knee protested. It had been sending out sharp pains more and more recently. Hajime glanced sideways at him, frowning.

“No one’s perfect. Speaking of, are you okay? It looked like you were limping earlier.” Tooru flashed him a peace sign, winking.

“Peachy! Is Iwa-chan worrying about me? That’s a bad use of your brain cell!” Hajime glared at him.

“Fine. Don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out for myself.” Tooru gasped, clutching his chest.

“You doubt me, Iwa-chan? The great Oikawa Tooru would never lie to you!” Hajime snorted, giving him a light push and stepping up to his door.

“Of course he wouldn’t. Where are you going?” Tooru turned back around, puzzled.

“Home?” Hajime raised an eyebrow.

“You forgot.” Tooru’s eyes widened. What did he forget? “It’s a math day Shittykawa.” Shit. He had a big assignment he had been procrastinating on that he had to finish. If he told Hajime, Hajime would get mad and drag him home directly after practice every night. 

“Right!” Tooru thought quickly. He needed the extra practice time. “I’m actually expected home soon so…” Hajime cocked his head, hand on the door.

“For what?” The way he said it so calmly, Tooru knew he didn’t believe him. Damn him for knowing him so well.

“To-to make dinner!” Hajime’s eyebrow rose even higher and Tooru winced. He was going to regret saying that.

“Alright. Let’s go to your house then.” Before Tooru could protest, Hajime opened his door, shouting to his mom.

“Mom, I’m going over to Tooru’s house!”

“Alright!” His mom called back. Hajime shut the door again and walked back to Tooru.

“Let’s go.” Tooru sighed. So much for that idea. Maybe he could convince Hajime to help him.

 

************************

Hajime glared at his phone. He was trying to study (which was hard enough as it was) and his phone kept vibrating its way across the table every five minutes or so. The caller ID read “Trash”, so it was Oikawa. Didn’t he tell Oikawa not to bother him? Hajime sighed. There was a chance that this was an emergency. He picked up the phone.

“I’m trying to study.” There was a sniffle on the other end. “Oikawa?”

“My knee hurts.” Hajime cursed under his breath. 

“Where are you?” It was a rhetorical question.

“At the gym.” Tooru answered anyway. Hajime rolled his eyes, pressing the phone between his shoulder and cheek as he slid his volleyball jacket off of its hanger and started to shrug it on.

“I thought we talked about this.” Tooru sniffled again.

“I didn’t hear the alarm, I swear!” Hajime snorted, tiptoeing downstairs and slipping on his shoes. He quietly opened the front door and slipped out, closing it behind him.

“Did you not hear it on accident or on purpose?” Tooru sniffed again, except this sniff sounded haughtier. He had ignored the alarm then. “How bad does you knee hurt?” Hajime looked up. It looked like it would rain soon.

“I don’t want to walk home by myself.” Hajime frowned, starting the trek to the school.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” This was the third time they’d been through this process. “Goddamnit Oikawa, I set that alarm for a reason.”

“I know, I know! I didn’t think that ten more minutes would do this though!” Hajime rounded the corner and the school came into view.

“You always say that and ten minutes becomes thirty.” Hajime hung up, making a mental note to set five more alarms on Tooru’s phone and jogged the rest of the way to the gym doors. Swinging it open, he saw a pouting Tooru propped up against the pole to the net, one hand resting on his bent knee, the injured one laid carefully out in front of him. In his other hand was his phone.

“You hung up on me.” Hajime snorted at Tooru’s petulant tone.

“I didn’t think you’d notice.” Tooru’s pout deepened as Hajime squatted beside him, looking at his knee. It looked inflamed. “Can you move it?” Tooru hesitated before slowly bending it.

“It hurts.” He let it lay straight again. Hajime sighed.

“You have to go to the doctor.” He slung one of Tooru’s arms around his shoulder, slowly pulling him up. Tooru pouted again.

“They’ll poke me with needles!” Hajime snorted.

“For your knee? If they did, it would probably reduce the pain. Besides, if you don’t get this looked at, you might not be able to play later.” Tooru pouted some more before sighing.

“Fine Mom. I’ll go to the stinky doctor.” Hajime side glared at him. 

“If you weren’t injured, I’d drop you.” Tooru stuck out his tongue and Hajime dumped him on the bench. “You better buy me ice cream after this.” Tooru watched, occasionally shouting words of encouragement, as Hajime took down the net. Whenever that happened, Hajime would glare at him. Tooru knew he’d regret it later, but it was funny to watch Hajime pretend to be mad. Hajime was rarely actually mad at him, but Tooru could tell when to shut up. Usually around that time, Hajime would develop a blank stare that always sent shivers up his spine. Almost Godzilla worthy.

“Don’t just sit there! Stretch a little, idiot!” Hajime shouted, snapping Tooru out of memory lane. 

“Yes sir!” Tooru saluted and then quickly began to ease into a stretch as Hajime leveled him with his eyes. After everything had been put away, Hajime rejoined him on the bench.

“Ready?” Tooru nodded, starting to get up, when they both heard a loud crack of thunder. Hajime sighed, sitting down on the bench.

“Nevermind.” Tooru squacked. 

“I gotta get home! My parents don’t know where I am!” Hajime flicked him on the forehead.

“Should have thought of that before you overworked yourself. There is no way I’m carrying you in the rain.” Tooru pouted.

“Some knight in shining armor you are.” Hajime flinched minutely and Tooru regretted saying it. Hajime had already gone out of his way to help him.

“How long do you think it’ll last?” Hajime shrugged.

“I’ll check.” He got up, walking to the gym doors and swinging them open. Outside, the rain pounded the concrete. Hajime quickly shut the door again and walked back to Tooru. 

“The drops look big enough and it’s raining hard enough that it should be thirty minutes tops. Hopefully we’ll get home before an angry storm of parents come looking for us.” Tooru absently wondered if his parents would notice he was gone, then quickly shook himself. Don’t go negative.

“Remember when we first met?” Hajime looked at him, amused.

“You accused me of trying to destroy your sand castle.” 

“We you actually trying to?” Hajime snorted.

“‘Course not. That was before I was diagnosed. I really did want that butterfly.” He laughed. “I haven’t thought about bug hunting in years.” Tooru smiled softly. Hajime looked so relaxed. He wished he could feel like that.

“What happened your old bug net?” Hajime shrugged, looking thoughtful.

“It might be up in the attic. Or Shika might have taken it.” Oikawa sat up straight.

“Shika’s pregnant?! And you didn’t tell me?!” Hajime’s face twisted unpleasantly.

“She’s not anymore.” From his face, Tooru saw what must have happened.

“Sorry.” Hajime shrugged, still not looking at him. 

“I think she’s okay now.” He sighed, leaning back, hands wrapped around the back of the bench. “Speaking of family developments, I think my parents are thinking of adopting.” Tooru looked over at him.

“What?” Hajime shrugged again, talking to the ceiling.

“I don’t know. I just heard them talking about it the other night. They think they’re both still relatively young and they want to do something about all those kids in orphanages and stuff.” Tooru watched him carefully, but he couldn’t read anything on Hajime’s face.

“How do you feel about that?” Hajime sighed at the ceiling.

“I think it’s great.”

“You don’t sound enthused.”

“Well, if they do adopt, it’ll be a baby, and that’s gonna be a lot of work for everyone. They’ll expect me to help out.” Tooru’s eyes widened as he caught the implication.

“You think that would effect you playing volleyball?” Hajime shrugged.

“They wouldn’t specifically say that, but I’d feel bad about it.” He gave Tooru a side glance. “That being said, I’m not thinking about quitting unless they totally guilt trip me, which they won’t.” Tooru breathed a sigh of relief and Hajime gave him a lopsided smile. 

“I’m not quitting on you. Stop fretting so much. For someone who constantly comments on how I’m going to get early wrinkles, you worry a lot.” Tooru pouted, but didn’t say anything. Hajime had a point and they both knew it. Hajime looked away, smirking.

“Remember Eiichi?” Tooru changed the subject. Hajime’s nose scrunched up in distaste and Tooru chuckled. 

“Did you ever figure out why he did it?” Tooru shrugged.

“I think he was secretly jealous of you.” Hajime’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at Tooru.

“Of me? Why?” Tooru shrugged. 

“I think he wished he could run around like you did.” Hajime stared, uncomprehending.

“So… Why didn’t he?”

“I don’t think his dad let him.” Hajime looked back at the ceiling, looking thoughtful.

“Gives me a little bit of sympathy for him. Doesn’t mean he had to be mean to us though.” Tooru shrugged, admitting the point. 

“You didn’t have to punch him either.” Hajime glared at him. 

“Haha Tooru.” Tooru snickered. He knew it was a side effect of Hajime’s ADHD. Eiichi hadn’t though. He also hadn’t appreciated Tooru sticking up for Hajime when he trashed talked him that first day. Tooru had just been ready to apologize when Hajime had stormed up. Ah, how the best friendships start. With insults and almost fistfights and umbrella shields. Hajime stood and, walking over to the door, checked the rain.

“I think it’s stopped. Can you walk at all?” Tooru stood up, swaying slightly and attempted to limp over to Hajime. Hajime rushed over, grabbing his arm.

“You just could have said no.” He helped Tooru to the locker room to grab his stuff. Tooru jokingly tried to make him help change and Hajime punched him in the stomach, hard enough to knock the breath out, but not hard enough that Tooru could complain. Hajime had punched him a lot harder before. 

“Mean Iwa-chan. No fair, punching an innocent, beautiful, injured being such as myself.” Hajime rolled his eyes.

“You mean an asshole such as yourself, dumbass?” He threw Tooru his bag, which hit him in the face. Tooru yelped. Hajime chuckled. 

“Come on. Let’s get home before the parents start driving up.”

 

*******************************

 

Hajime rushed through the hospital, not caring if he ran into anyone. Right before he got to anywhere, a doctor blocked his way.

“I’m sorry, but only family is allowed to-“

“I am his family!” Hajime tried to push past him, but the doctor was relentless.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in.” Hajime vaguely remembered he hadn’t taken any medication in his rush to the door, but mostly he just felt the blood rushing through his veins.

“I need to see him!” The doctor was getting impatient too.

“Young man, if you don’t leave, I’ll be forced to call security-“ Hajime cut him off with a push and a well placed elbow and ran down the hall. He could hear the doctor shout something, but he was too close to stop now. He could see Tooru’s room number. Tooru looked up in alarm as Hajime threw the door open and then quickly slammed it behind him, propping a chair against the handle.

“Iwa-chan.” Tooru looked at him, eyes wide. Just by looking at his eyes he could tell two things: 1) Hajime was furious with him, and 2) he hadn’t taken his meds. There was no telling what was going to happen.

“'Iwa-chan’? That’s all you have to say? ‘Iwa-chan’?!” Hajime yelled. Tooru flinched.

“Iwa-“ 

“Don’t ‘Iwa-chan’ me.” Hajime cut him off. “Don’t you dare ‘Iwa-chan’ me. I wake up on a Sunday- a SUNDAY!- and my parents tell me that my best friend’s in the hospital cuz he screwed up his knee! The same best friend who swore he went to the doctor and got the a-okay to play, the one who I’ve been telling over and over to take it easy and not overwork himself, and when I come and see you, all you say is ‘Iwa-chan?!” Tooru flared up.

“You’re not the only one who’s not having a field day, you know! You’re not the one who was told that his knee is sprained and that he can’t play until basically the Spring Tournament! You’re not the one-”

“FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME?!?!” 

“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY WHAT I DO!” They stared at each other. Hajime’s forehead vein was throbbing and he was clenching and unclenching his fists. At last, he took a deep breath.

“Fine. You win. See you Oikawa.” Hajime turned around, throwing the chair away from the door and stormed out. Tooru gaped after him. Hajime had never backed down from a fight like that. Come to think about it, they’d never had a fight like that. He lay back down, forehead furrowed, listening to the sounds outside. Hajime would get over it. He’d see that Tooru was right and forgive him. Right?

 

************************

 

It’s been four weeks. Four weeks since Tooru was released to play and almost two months since he and Hajime had had an actual conversation. It really showed Tooru how much he and Hajime used to hang out. Hajime had avoided him as much as possible since the hospital. In retaliation, Tooru had accepted a confession from one of his fans, a pretty girl with long hair and who had blushed when she confessed. After a few choice remarks at practice, Hajime had gotten the message that Tooru was replacing him and had done the unthinkable; he had partnered with Kageyama.

“That was good.” Tooru watched as Hajime took a gulp from his water bottle and frowned. He when he threw to Hajime, Hajime had always said that he liked balls a little higher than that. Hajime seemed to sense him staring because he turned, tensing, and Tooru quickly adverted his eyes. They weren’t friends anymore. Hajime had made that clear.

Hajime looked at Tooru’s back. The unofficial captain was resolutely not making eye contact. Instead, he was waving and blowing kisses to his girlfriend. Hajime tore his eyes away, turning back to Kageyama.

“You want to go again? We can practice quicks.” Kageyama nodded, eyes shining. Hajime called Kindaichi over. “You should watch so you know how to do it later.” Kindaichi nodded rapidly.

“Okay Iwaizumi-san!” He jumped off the bench, almost tripping over his feet (and Kunimi, who had been slumped near them), bounding over to them. They spent the rest of the practice working on quicks.

“Iwaizumi-san, you can get to the ball really fast!” Kageyama blurted, and Hajime turned to him, startled.

“What?” Kageyama blushed at his outburst.

“I mean, you can get to the ball a lot faster than Kindaichi, or the other spikers. I guess that’s why you’re the ace.” Hajime chuckled, ruffling Kageyama’s hair. 

“I just try my hardest. Anyone can do it. It just takes a lot of practice.” Kageyama nodded, and Hajime saw Kindaichi do the same out of the corner of his eye, looking like a bobble-head. He raised his voice. “Let’s wrap it up. We have a game tomorrow.” 

“Yes!” The team chorused, and started to clean up. Hajime looked over at Tooru, shaking his head when he saw that the boy was still practicing. He hesitated before walking over.

“Oi. We’re done for the night.” Tooru dropped the ball, mostly out of surprise Hajime was talking directly at him.

“I’ll take the net down when I’m done.” Hajime scowled at him.

“We have a game tomorrow. We need you rested to play.” He grabbed the volleyball from the floor, throwing it in the bin before Tooru could protest, and began taking down the net.

“They’re not going to play your darling Tobio-chan?” Hajime stopped taking down the pole, looking at Tooru’s pouting face.

“You’re the official setter. We’re playing you.” Hajime hoped that this would bring Oikawa out of whatever slump he was in. He had been more careless than usual the last few matches.

 

***********************

“Iwaizumi-san?” Hajime slung his bag over his shoulder before turning back to Kageyama.

“Yeah?” Kageyama fidgeted.

“Could you help me with my serve again?” Hajime gave him a slight smile.

“We should both be getting home. Gotta do homework to stay on the team.” It was a point they were working on; Kageyama hadn’t quite grasped the importance of doing homework on his volleyball career. Hajime was working on it with him, mostly via volleyball analogies. Kageyama nodded, looking dejected, and Hajime took pity on him. “We’ll work on it tomorrow. Better yet, I’ll ask Oikawa if he’ll teach you.” It was a fifty-fifty chance. Tooru would either say yes for bragging rights or flat out deny him as he’d been doing all year. Either way, Kageyama perked up.

“Okay! See you Iwaizumi-san!” He waved, jogging off, and Hajime waved back. He turned back to the locker room. Tooru was still in the shower.

When Tooru stepped out of the shower, he was surprised to see Hajime sitting on one of the benches, calmly doing his homework.

“What are you doing here?” Hajime finished the problem he was on before looking up.

“Finally. You take the longest showers.” He shoved the papers back in his bag. “I was waiting for you. Come on. Change. Let’s go.” He slung the bag over his shoulder before walking out the door. Tooru stood in shock until he heard Hajime’s voice drift back in.

“If you’re gonna take an eternity, I’m gonna leave you!” Tooru was jolted back to a forgotten memory of Hajime jumping on him, saying something similar to get him to get up so they could walk to school together in elementary school. He felt the same frantic energy now.

“Noooo Iwa-chan!” He hurried to change, and heard Hajime chuckle from outside. He felt his face turn up, the smile growing. They were going to be okay.

 

********************

 

“Kageyama, why don’t you give it a try?”

 

********************

Tooru served again. It was that damned month in rehab. That’s why he got subbed today. It was that damned month of no practice that let Kageyama surpass him. He had to make it back up.

“Oikawa-san?” He turned to see Kageyama clutching a volleyball. “Please teach me how to serve.” Oikawa stared at him. This was the reason he was a failure. This was why people looked at him with pity. This genius child who made a fool of him, mocked him, stole Hajime from him, and then topped the insult off by asking for his help. He didn’t want to see him. He wanted him to go away. He needed to go away, get away from him.

“Calm down dumbass!” Tooru blinked. Hajime was holding his arm tight enough that it hurt. The arm that was a foot away from Kageyama’s face.

“…Sorry” The words formed, dropping from his mouth as Tooru stared in shock. Had he really come that close to hitting Kageyama.

“Kageyama, sorry, but that’ll be all for today.” Hajime released him and turned to Kageyama, who nodded.

“Ah… Okay.” They both watched him quickly walk to the locker room, sliding the door shut behind him. Hajime sighed.

“That substitution today was to let you clear your head. Just take some time and-“ Tooru cut him off, his insecurity surging.

“There’s no way I can do that when I can’t possibly win against Shiratorizawa the way I am now! I want to win and go on to the Nationals! In order to win, I have to-“ Too late, he realized Hajime was very angry and not on medication. Realization came to a very hard and painful blow to the face.

“Ngaah?!” He fell to the floor, realizing that Hajime had just head butted him. That was new.

“All of that 'I, I' crap is annoying!” Hajime yelled. Tooru touched his face, feeling blood run down to his mouth. “Are you planning to fight by yourself? This isn’t some joke, you dumbass! Your results and the team’s results are the same! If you’re gonna get all conceited, I’ll sock you one!” By this point, Hajime had the front of his shirt and was shaking him.

“You already did!” But Hajime wasn’t done with him yet.

“We’ve got nobody who could win against Ushiwaka 1-on-1!” He shouted in Tooru’s face, referring to the Shiratorizawa boy that they had been fighting against for years and that liked to creepily stare at Tooru. He hadn’t talked to him yet. “But volleyball’s got six people on the court for a reason! it six people, the strong are even stronger, you dumbass!” Hajime finally released him, either finished with his speech or out of air to continue. Tooru stared at him in awe. He felt like he was seeing Hajime for the first time.

“With six people, the strong are even stronger…” He murmured, repeating Hajime’s last words. He looked up at Hajime from his position on the floor. Hajime towered over him, confidence oozing from every pore, determination set in his face. The complete opposite of how Tooru had felt for the last year. How Tooru had looked to others, but this will of steel was not anything anyone ever saw, ever expected from Iwaizumi Hajime. Tooru laughed quietly at this. Hajime’s eyes widened.

“Sorry, did I headbutt you too hard?” Tooru kept laughing, unable to stop. The steel disappeared from Hajime’s eyes, replaced by worry. “You alright?!” With some difficulty, Tooru stopped the laughter.

“Haah… Yeah… I don’t know why, but…” He looked directly in Hajime’s eyes. Hajime, who had always been there for him, had always supported him and cared for him. Who had not and probably will never leave him because of his faults. “All of a sudden, I feel Invincible.” Tooru stood up, seeing the relief in Hajime’s eyes. Suddenly, he realized how fast his heart was beating. Shaken, he tried to play it off.

“Is ‘dumbass’ the only insult you know, Iwa-chan?” The relief left Hajime’s eyes and the feeling subsided. 

“How about I break your nose this time?”

 

**********************

The coaches all agreed; pretty much overnight, Tooru seemed to walk lighter, laugh freer. And he and Hajime were talking again, which everyone considered to be a huge improvement.

They lost to Shiratorizawa again. Ushiwaka (his real name was Ushijima Wakatoshi but, spiteful, Tooru had changed it) was just too strong. But Tooru found that, instead of beating himself about it, he just saw how to improve, how many more matches they had to play. Hajime saw this, giving him a small smile that lightened his spirits even farther. 

A couple of weeks later, Tooru was presented with the ‘Best Setter’ award. After the ceremony, he waved it in Kageyama’s face and Hajime slapped him, telling him not to bully the first years for the last time. Once Tooru was out of earshot, he ruffled Kageyama’s hair.

“You’re gonna be something great someday kid. Keep working.” Kageyama smiled at him, eyes gleaming.

“Yes!” Kindaichi came up to him next.

“Thank you for teaching us!” He yelled, bowing. Hajime clapped him on the shoulder, grinning.

“My treat. Hope to see you in a few years.” Both he and Tooru had gotten into Aoba Johsai, a powerhouse school for volleyball. Kindaichi and Kageyama both nodded.

“Yes!” Hajime started to walk off, looking for Tooru. Behind him, Kageyama turned to Kindaichi.

“Iwaizumi-san’s so cool.” Kindaichi nodded furiously. Kageyama looked back at his sempai’s retreating back, contemplating something, before turning back to Kindaichi excitedly.

“You can be my Iwaizumi!” Kindaichi looked at him, startled.

“What?” Kageyama frowned, trying to explain himself.

“You know how well Oikawa and Iwaizumi-san play together? We should do that!” Kindaichi started to nod, but Kageyama wasn’t finished. “If you can play as well as Iwaizumi, we’ll be golden!” 

“What about you? You have to play as well as Oikawa too!” Kindaichi protested, feeling like the challenge was a little uneven. Kageyama turned to him, a determined expression on his face.

“I’m going to do better than that. I’m going to surpass him.” And maybe, just maybe, if he did that, he’d be able to play with Iwaizumi again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh... This chapter was sooooooo hard to write! I got the dialog for the Kageyama/Oikawa/Iwaizumi scene straight from the manga, which means I had to find it.... Anyway, hear you go!


	11. Reunions (They're Everywhere!)

“Iwa-chan!” Hajime turned around, just in time to get an armful of Tooru.

“Miss me much?” Hajime allowed the other boy to hang off him for another second before shoving him off. Tooru smiled at him for a second before his eyes took a surprised look.

“What?” Hajime frowned, pulling the vest of his new uniform down. Tooru blinked, before smiling cheerily.

“You’re tie’s crooked, Iwa-chan! Did you try to dress all by yourself today?” Hajime smacked him on the back of his head. 

“Shut up, Shittykawa.” Tooru winked, flashing him a peace sign before skipping ahead, humming. Inside, his mind was churning. That was close. He had barely seen Hajime all summer, and it had been a bit shocking, that’s all. He hadn’t expected Hajime to have… well, what did he do? Tooru wasn’t sure. He just seemed… different, a difference that stemmed past the fact that Tooru was taller than him now.

“Is this vest really necessary?” Tooru turned back to see Hajime looking down at the tan vest distastefully. Tooru smiled, flashing him a peace sign.

“Of course! What else is going to convince people you’re not a caveman?” Hajime’s eye twitched and Tooru’s eyes widened. Maybe he was wrong about Hajime taking his meds. Hajime had been trying to stop taking them for a couple of months now (hence the head butting incident). “Just kidding, just kidding!” Tooru took off down the street, Hajime chasing after him. They stopped a street from the school to catch their breath. 

“Ready?”

“Ready.” The walked through the gates. Immediately, there were people advertising clubs.

“Tennis club has….”

“…go for a day….” Tooru pushed past everyone, trying to find a volleyball representative. Hajime had given him a look and peeled off earlier. Finally he found one.

“You want to join the volleyball club?” Tooru beamed.

“Yep! Can I have a second one for a friend?” The representative smiled at him, handing him a second form.

“Well, well. Look who we have here.” Tooru whirled to see two boys staring back at him with matching smirks.

“Makki? Mattsun?” The boy’s smirks grew.

“Oh look. He remembers us.” Matsukawa had grown, and now towered over Oikawa. Hanamaki had likewise grown taller, but not taller than Oikawa yet. His hair was a shocking green. Tooru tsked.

“Two years apart and look what you’ve done to yourselves. Mattsun, your eyebrows are getting out of control. Look how bushy they are! And green Makki? Really? Neon Green? Why would you do this to yourself?” The boys all grinned at each other before trying to launch into their secret handshake. However, due to the lack of Iwaizumi, it wasn’t complete.

“Where’s your knight oh powerful king?” Oikawa shrugged, looking around. 

“We split up looking for the volleyball club. Speaking of, why did your school not play us the last couple of years?” Matsukawa shrugged, grabbing the forms from the representative.

“New coach. Didn’t do so hot with the ‘get along with every other coach in the prefecture’ thing.” Oikawa nodded.

“You two want to help me find Iwa-chan?” The two grinned.

“Sure!” They walked around until they saw Hajime talking with another boy his height. He was smiling and rubbing the back of his neck. Tooru felt a surge of something and he sped up his pace. Behind him, Hanamaki and Matsukawa traded looks before doing the same.

“Iwa-chan!” Both Hajime and the other boy turned to look at him. The other boy smiled.

“Oikawa. Long time no see.” Tooru skidded to a stop, shocked. This other boy knew him? “Yamamoto Hirohito” Tooru’s eyes widened.

“Hirohito?” Hajime snickered and the other three boys joined in.

“Yeah. I just ran into Hajime here. We’ve been catching up.” Tooru felt another stab of whatever feeling that had been. He could call Hajime by his first name and Tooru couldn’t? The warning bell rang.

“We gotta go. See you around?” Iwaizumi asked. Hirohito nodded.

“Yeah. I’m joining the track club if you want to join? I remember you were always the fastest on the playground.” Hajime smiled and Tooru wrapped an arm around his shoulders before he could reply.

“Iwa-chan plays volleyball with us.” Tooru beamed as big as he could and Hirohito’s eyes widened and he nodded.

“Alright then. See you around.” He left and Hajime turned to Tooru with an irked expression.

“That was unnecessary.” Tooru pouted but before he could say anything, Hajime caught sight of Hanamaki.

“Hanamaki?” He turned, seeing Matsukawa as well. “Matsukawa?” The boys in question grinned.

“Hey grumpy face. Or should we call you muscle boy now?” Tooru turned to Hajime in time to see his face turn an interesting shade of red. Hanamaki and Masukawa snickered.

“Short muscle boy.” Hanamaki dodged the first punch but Hajime caught him square on the shoulder the second time. “Short, strong muscle boy.” Hajime punched him once more for good measure, rolling his eyes. So that’s what was different about him. Now that Tooru looked for it, he could see that Hajime’s shoulders were a little wider and that his clothes seemed a little tighter.

“Shut up.” The Matsukawa grinned, stepping up next to Hajime and forcing him to look up in order to make eye contact.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you from all the way down there.” Tooru saw Hajime’s eye twitch.

“Iwa-chan’s always been short.” Hajime glared at him before pushing past all of them, headed for the building. The others snickered before following, heading to class. Tooru’s heart skipped as he saw that he and Hajime were going to be in the same class. He cheered, turning to Hajime who promptly groaned.

“Another year stuck with you.” He gave Tooru a side look and Tooru gasped in mock offense.

“Mean Iwa-chan!” He had seen Hajime’s lips twitch up into the faintest of smiles and his heart skipped again. What was happening to him? 

“I call back.” They walked into the classroom, taking the window seats, Tooru in front and Hajime behind him.

“So you can cheat off my papers and pretend you’re not a total retard?” Hajime slapped him hard enough his head hit the desk.

“Don’t use that word like that” Hajime lectured over Tooru’s wails. “And it’s actually so you can’t cheat off of my math papers.” Tooru pouted at him, rubbing his forehead.

“I would never cheat off of you.” Hajime rolled his eyes and the final bell rang. The teacher stood from behind her desk and everyone drew out their notebooks. Tooru snuck a quick look behind him before turning fully to face Hajime, mouth gaping.

“You drew that?” Hajime looked up from where he was rummaging in his bag for a pen. Tooru pointed to the picture on the front of the notebook. It was a knight, posed on the back of a charging horse, lance in position, a sword hanging from his side. The horse was in jesting finery, it’s mane and the knight’s plumage ruffling in the wind. Hajime shrugged.

“Yeah. It took me a week.” Tooru stared at him. “What? You knew I’ve been taking art class.” Tooru blinked at him again. The teacher coughed, and he whipped back to face the front, face burning. Hajime snickered behind him.

“Now that I have all of your attention, lets begin…” Tooru took notes, doodling attack plans on the sides of his paper. He sneaked a glance back at Hajime. Half of his page was notes. The other half was an elaborate butterfly in a jar. Tooru turned back to the front. He wished he could draw.

 

************************

 

Finally, the school day had ended and it was time for clubs. Tooru and Hajime caught up with Hanamaki and Matsukawa and they all walked down together, chatting and catching up on lost time. As they changed into practice clothes, Hajime’s muscle gain was much more noticeable. His arms were definitely thicker. Tooru comforted himself in the fact that at least neither of them had six packs.

“So muscle boy,” Hanamaki drawled, sidling up to Hajime and leaning on his back as he bent to tie his shoes. “How much can you lift?” Hajime stood up, ‘accidentally’ elbowing Hanamaki in the stomach. Hanamaki wheezed, falling to the floor dramatically. Hajime smirked down at him.

“More than you.” He pulled Hanamaki to his feet with enough power to make him stumble before turning to Tooru. “Hurry up.” Tooru stuck his tongue out at him.

“Iwa-chan. You’re always in a hurry.” He pulled on his kneepads and Hajime frowned at him.

“Where’s your brace?” Tooru shushed him.

“I’ll wear it once I’m on the team, I swear.” Hajime sighed before turning back to the door and Tooru cheered internally. He was going to let him do it! They walked out, joining the crowd of first years trying out, and handed in their papers. Matsukawa and Hanamaki were right behind them, Matsukawa handing in both papers and getting weird looks for not wearing kneepads. Tooru looked at Hajime, who nodded back. Let’s do this. 

The tryouts were as hard as some of the hardest practices at Kitagawa Daiichi. Tooru was breathing hard by the end.

“Alright. We- Irihata, captain Saito and vice-captain Kobayashi, will call you in one by one to tell you if you got a spot or not.” One of the coaches, Mizouguchi, motioned the aforementioned boys into the hallway. All the first years looked at each other before following the team’s example and sitting in groups on the floor. Tooru wanted to practice serving, but Hajime yanked him back down. Hajime, Tooru, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa sat around in a circle telling lamer and lamer jokes until Matsukawa was called. He disappeared into the hallway, reemerging a few minutes later. Hanamaki sat up.

“Well?” Matsukawa shrugged. 

“I got in.” Tooru’s head shot up from where it was resting on his knee and Hanamaki pulled Matsukawa into the circle.

“One does not simply just ‘get in’. Sit down! I want all the juicy details!” Matsukawa grinned at him.

“What’s to say? I’m tall and they were impressed.” Hanamaki grinned.

“So all those cheese hamburg steaks you inhaled payed off?” Matsukawa grinned back.

“Something like that. Unlike all those cream puffs you were woofing down.” Hanamaki tackled him and Tooru laughed. Hajime cracked a smile before looking back at the door. Tooru nudged him.

“Nervous?” He was teasing until he saw the expression on Hajime’s face. “Aw come on. You’ll get in! They don’t have a rule about Neanderthals joining!” Hajime gave him a weak jab in the side.

“Easy for you to say, Mr. I Got A Letter Of Recommendation.” Tooru narrowed his eyes. Okay, he was really nervous to not comment on the Neanderthal thing.

“Of course you’ll get in.” Hajime shrugged. 

“We’ll see.” Hanamaki was called and they sat in silence for a minute. 

“My parents finished filling out the adoption papers.” Tooru brightened, looking at Hajime.

“Ooh, they went through with it? Is it gonna be a boy or a girl? I bet they’ll be cuter than you!” Hajime stretched out on the floor, staring at the ceiling with his arms behind his head.

“Twin boys I think.”

“Twins?!” Whatever Tooru was going to say was cut off by Coach Mizouguchi calling his name. He waved cheekily to Hajime before skipping off. Hanamaki and Matsukawa entertained themselves by meming (“It’s a game, Iwaizumi. Whoever runs out of memes for the conversation loses and buys the other food. I’m gonna get cream puffs out of this, you’ll see!”). Eventually Tooru came back, pouting a little.

“What’s wrong Your Highness?” Matsukawa asked, giving Hanamaki the time out signal. Tooru’s pout deepened.

“I’m not the official setter.” The Matsukawa and Hanamaki looked at each other before bursting out in laughter.

“Oh, the poor prince can’t inherit the throne yet!” Hanamaki gasped between peals of laughter. Matsukawa was lying on the floor, making periodic gasping noises, but otherwise silent, shoulders shaking.

“Seriously though,” Matsukawa said, sitting up. “Isn’t that a little inconsiderate to be upset about when Iwaizumi hasn’t even been called yet?” Tooru shut his mouth from where it was open to protest with a snap. He had forgotten Hajime hadn’t been called yet. He cast a guilty glance at Hajime, but he didn’t meet it, too busy staring at the ceiling with an awful blank look.

“They haven’t called everyone yet.” Hanamaki tried. Hajime blinked.

“But they’ve called five. How many can they take?” Hanamaki, Matsukawa, and Tooru exchanged worried looks and finally Hajime’s name was called. Hajime sighed, looking like he was ready to sink into the floor, before hauling himself to his feet, walking to the coach. Matsukawa looked at Tooru.

“Has he ever been like that before?” Tooru shook his head, frowning. 

“No. I think he was a little nervous.” The five minutes Hajime spent talking to the coaches felt like an eternity. Finally, he came back, sporting a thoughtful frown. Tooru froze. What did that mean? Was he on the team? Hajime sat down quietly, still lost in his own thought. Finally, Tooru couldn’t take it any more.

“Well?!?!?!” Hajime jumped slightly and Matsukawa snickered.

“Five seconds. Pay up.” Hanamaki groaned, slapping 100 yen into Matsukawa’s waiting palm. Hajime looked at them, eyes narrowing and Tooru shook him to get his attention again.

“Well?!?!” Hajime shook him off.

“No need for theatrics.” Tooru bounced, waiting to hear the verdict and Hajime gave a shaky smile. 

“I made it.” Tooru cheered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start of Hajime's insecurities. More later! :)


	12. Iwa-chan's Girlfriend

“Play volleyball at Seijou they said. It will be fun they said.” Matsukawa grunted his approval of Hanamaki’s comment, too tired for the usual high five and fist bump. All four boys were slumped over the benches in the locker room, waiting for the third years to finish showering (as a ritual/hazing, they had banned the first years from showering until after they were done). All the practices were absolute nightmares, and Tooru and Hajime had taken to walking home in silence, rubbing sore muscles and dreaming of the rest they would get once they finished their homework.

“The third years are out of the shower.” Hajime gingerly sat up, rolling his shoulder. “Come on. Up!” Tooru extended his arm and Hajime pulled him to his feet. Tooru was impressed he was moving at all. All he wanted to do was curl up in a ball until all this muscles stopped aching. Hajime moved to Hanamaki next, helping him to his feet and they both hauled Matsukawa up, much to the latter’s distress.

“Think about it this way,” Hanamaki said, consolingly rubbing circles on Matsukawa’s back. “You can stand under the hot water for a bit.” Matsukawa nodded groggily, and followed the others to the showers. All four boys sighed as the water hit their skin.

“I still don’t get how you managed to fit so many toiletry items in your practice bag.” Hanamaki mumbled later, as he watched Tooru stand by the sink, blow drying his hair. 

“Practice makes perfect! We can’t all be barbarians like Iwa-chan!” Hajime glared at him from where he was toweling his hair dry, but didn’t say anything. Tooru glanced over, surprised, before frowning.

“Isn’t that one of your bathroom towels?” Hajime glanced at it for a second.

“Yup.” Tooru whirled around. 

“I thought you weren’t allowed to take those out of the bathroom because you always manage to destroy them?” Hajime shrugged.

“They won’t notice.” Tooru’s eyes narrowed before widening again.

“The twins are here?!” Hajime nodded, turning around to throw his towel into his bag. “I wanna come over and meet them!”

“Us too.” Hanamaki said, slinging an arm around Tooru’s shoulder. Hajime looked at them, frowning.

“Come tomorrow. Theoretically they should be asleep now.” Matsukawa raised an eyebrow, or attempted to.

“Theoretically?” Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Last night they wouldn’t stop crying until a little after three.”

“Is that why you were so grumpy today?”

“A little. Ready to go?” He slung his bag over his shoulder, wincing. Tooru sighed.

“Yeah.” He carefully put his bag on his shoulder as well. Matsukawa and Hanamaki followed his example.

“Thank god for no afternoon practice tomorrow.” Tooru hummed in agreement. He loved the sport, sure, but all this conditioning he was doing right now (although he knew it was good for him) was not his idea of a picnic. He turned to Hajime.

“A new alien movie just came out. You wanna see it with me tomorrow?” Hajime looked at him, almost guiltily. 

“I already made plans, sorry.” Tooru stood in shock. Hajime made plans without him?

“Get rekt.” Tooru turned and came face to face with a grinning Hanamaki. 

“Maybe he got a girlfriend.” Matsukawa idly said. Tooru froze. Hajime… had a girlfriend? That would explain a lot, actually. Why he’d been so distant recently. But he didn’t tell Tooru?

 

******************

 

“I am not stalking. This is not stalking, this is being curious.” Tooru comforted himself, kneeling behind some bushes. Ever since Matsukawa had planted the idea of Hajime’s girlfriend in his head, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Of course Hajime would have a girlfriend. He was smart and athletic. Tooru was also smart and athletic, and he’d had several girlfriends. Granted, they had all dumped him because they felt he was too in love with volleyball to pay attention to them, but still. Tooru gasped. Hajime was also into volleyball. He’d get dumped for the same reason! Tooru couldn’t let that happen. It would break his little uncouth heart and Tooru wouldn’t stand by and let it happen. Resolution set, Tooru looked up to see Hajime exit the building, looking around for someone.

“Iwaizumi!” A pretty girl with short dark hair ran up to Hajime and Tooru’s eyes widened. Hajime’s girlfriend was Ikeda Hikaru, second year track manager?

“Hey Hikaru.” Hajime smiled at her and she shyly smiled back. Tooru frowned at the first name. So this girl really was close to Hajime.

“Hirohito said to tell you our locker rooms are by the track.” Hajime nodded.

“Thanks. Shall we?” He offered her his arm and Ikeda blushed.

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” She took his arm anyway and Hajime laughed.

“Never.” Ikeda sighed dramatically. 

“Ah well. It’s not like I don’t have dirt on you too.” She grinned evilly and winked at Hajime, who grinned back.

“Thats the spirit.” They started walking off, chatting amicably, and Tooru followed, ducking behind trees. They were going to the track for a date? How lame. Although, he supposed, Ikeda couldn’t get out of practice. Maybe that’s why. But what did Hirohito have to do with this? They had reached the track, where the boys gave a few wolf whistles when they saw Ikeda on Hajime’s arm. 

“Looking good, princess!” Ikeda blushed. 

“I hate all of you.” She exracted her arm from Hajime’s and, waving, ran off to where the coaches stood. One of the track boys thumped Hajime on the back.

“Looking good, Iwaizumi-kun. Nice to see you today. Are we so awesome you’re skipping your own practice to be here?” Hajime laughed, hitting him back.

“Not at all. Practice was cancelled this afternoon. Do your coaches know I’m here?” 

“We told them.” Hirohito emerged, throwing Hajime a pair of shoes. “Your practice stuff’s in the locker. But those shoes can’t disgrace this track again.” Hajime grinned. 

“Yes sir.” Hirohito smiled and everyone went into the locker room. Tooru sat back against the tree, confused. Hajime wasn’t on a date? He was just hanging out with the track people on his day off? A little while later, the boys emerged again, laughing and joking with each other. Hajime grinned before jogging up to the coach. Tooru moved from his tree to the edge of the bleachers, still out of sight, but in hearing distance.

“… pleasure to have you here Iwaizumi-kun.” The coach was saying, smiling at Hajime.

“Thanks for letting me join for the day.” The coach laughed.

“Iwaizumi, if I had my way, you would quit the volleyball team and join permanently.” Tooru stifled a gasp. This coach, this evil man, wanted to steal Hajime from the volleyball team?! Hajime grinned.

“You can’t win me over that easy. Besides, it would be boring to come in first day after day.” Tooru was glad his hand was already over his mouth. He always knew Hajime was fast, but he could outrun the track people? The coach shook his head.

“Sorry to hear that. I’m glad Yamamoto got you to join a practice. By the way, Nakajima beat your time yesterday, so you have a little competition now.” He nodded to the other boys. “Go stretch.”

“Yes sir!” Hajime jogged to where the other boys were stretching in the grass. As the practice went on, Tooru was a little perplexed. Most of the track team’s practice was conditioning, just like volleyball. They were supposed to be taking the day off to relax and recuperate. Still, he quietly cheered as Hajime lined up with the others in various events, usually placing pretty high. He came in first with the long distance running and the 100 meter dash, second in shot-put and discus (putting those arms to use, Tooru thought to himself), and third with high jump. Tooru noticed that Ikeda would cheer for him occasionally, and whenever she did, Hajime would give her a two finger salute, causing her to blush and the other boys would smirk at each other. Near the end of practice, Hajime was lying in the grass with Hirohito when several boys wearing the baseball uniform came up.

“Yo, Iwaizumi! You playing with us this weekend?” Hajime looked up at him.

“It depends. You gonna throw that weak crap at me again?” The other boy matched his smirk.

“It depends. You gonna hit another home run off my fast ball?”

“We’ll see.” Hajime grinned at him. “Time and place?”

“Your volleyball practice ends at two?” Hajime nodded. “Alright, we’ll start at four, at the usual field. You need stuff again?” Hajime nodded again.

“My mom says it’s pointless to buy things for sports I’m not part of the club for.” The baseball boy wrinkled his nose. 

“That’s not very nice. I’ll loan you some of my stuff again.” Hajime smiled at him.

“Thanks.” It sounded a little shy. The baseball boy waved to him and walked off. Tooru leaned against the bleachers, trying to process all this new information. Hajime played other sports after volleyball practice. He’d obviously been doing it for a while, but never told Tooru. But Tooru was his best friend… right?

“Oikawa?” Tooru flinched and turned to come face to face with the baseball boy. “Iwaizumi told us about you.” The boy smiled and Tooru saw that he must have had braces sometime in his past; his teeth were perfectly straight, making Tooru feel a little self-conscious about his slight overbite.

“… Who are you?” The boy’s eyes widened slightly but he kept his smile.

“You don’t know?” Tooru wordlessly shook his head. “I’m Ikeda Toshhiro, Hikaru’s twin.”

 

*********************

“So how did you meet the Ikeda twins?” They were walking back to Hajime’s house and Hajime had a stormy expression on, but Tooru was just curious enough to ignore it. After staring at Ikeda blankly, jaw open for a couple minutes, his sister had noticed, which had lead to her calling out to Hajime. At first he had been confused to why Tooru was there, but that quickly faded to anger. As soon as they were alone, he had socked Tooru in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.

“None of your business.” Short and simple, and not at all what Tooru wanted to hear.

“Seriously though.”

“Seriously, shut up.” Okay then. Tooru rubbed his stomach. Time to change the subject. 

“So you play baseball on the weekends?” Hajime gave him a glare and Tooru backed off. Geez, what was wrong with him? All Tooru wanted was to be a good friend. Hajime just wasn’t letting him get close.

“Oikawa, drop it.” Tooru sighed.

“Can I still come over for math day?” Hajime sighed. 

“Fine.” Well, at least they still had that going. Hajime pushed open the door and came face to face with a grinning Matsukawa.

“Well hello Iwaizumi the Elder. Welcome home.” Iwaizumi looked shocked, especially when Hanamaki came up from behind Matsukawa.

“You’re new little brothers are adorable.” Hajime sighed. 

“Right, you were coming over today.” They grinned.

“Yup. We’ve booted Tooru out to be your mom’s new favorites. Nice room, by the way.” Hajime groaned, pushing past them and calling out.

“I’m home!” Tooru gaped at the others.

“You two… are his mom’s new favorites?” He pushed past them as well. He had to get his spot back!

The twins were adorable, yet very high maintenance. Tooru figured out too late (much to the their amusement) that Matsukawa and Hanamaki were approved as ‘favorites’ because they had helped out with the twins, whom they had named Hisao and Yoshi. An hour later, Hanamaki and Matsukawa excused themselves and Tooru extracted himself to search out Hajime. He found him in his room, which was surprisingly clean, sprawled out on his bed.

“Who you texting, Iwa-chan?” Hajime quickly sat up, shutting off his phone. 

“No one.” Tooru smirked.

“Well, you were smiling while you texted ‘no one’.” Hajime blushed, caught out.

“Fine. I was texting Ikeda.” He grabbed his bag. “Let’s do some math.” Tooru sighed dramatically.

“Ia-chan! But you were about to tell me about your love life!” Hajime scowled still blushing. “Come on, Iwa-chan. Pleeeaaassseee????” 

“If you shut up now and do some math, I’ll tell you at the end.” Tooru smiled. Tooru: 54, Hajime: 10 (he tended not to count when Hajime won a point).

“Deal!”

 

********************

 

“So….?” Hajime looked up.

“So what?” They had finished the math homework and were now lounging on Hajime’s bed playing Mario Kart. Tooru had gotten permission from his mother to stay the night, mostly due to the fact that neither her or his father would have been home anyway.

“So you have a date with Ikeda-san yet?” Hajime flushed and Tooru smirked. Like he’d ever forget that Hajime was going to tell him about that. 

“No.” Hajime moved to start the next game and Tooru quickly paused the game.

“Why not? She seems like a nice girl!” Hajime groaned, burying his head in the blankets.

“She is, but-“

“So go for it!” Tooru draped himself over Hajime, cooing in his ear. Hajime swatted at him, and Tooru moved away, yelping.

“Oikawa, you don’t know what you’re talking about-“ Tooru cut him off.

“Sure I do!” He grabbed Hajime’s phone. Hajime’s eyes widened and he lunged for it, but Tooru held it over his head.

“Give it back!” Tooru shook his head.

“Just speeding up the process!” He swiped and then paused. “You have a password?”

“Yeah, to keep annoying jerks like you out!” Hajime grabbed for the phone again, but Tooru moved.

“Hmm…. It’s not ‘volleyball’… Or your birthday… Or mine…” 

“Why would it be your birthday?!” Hajime wrestled Tooru, but Tooru turned so he still had access to the phone.

“When’s Ikeda-san’s birthday?”

“I don’t know. Give me the phone!” Tooru tsked.

“Iwa-chan! You should know your future girlfriend’s birthday!” His eyes lit up and Hajime regarded him warily.

“It’s her name, isn’t it!” Hajime groaned, rolling face first onto the bed again as Tooru typed out ‘Hikaru’. He blinked, looking down at the screen.

“It says it’s locked for thirty seconds.” Hajime smirked into the blanket.

“Cuz that’s not the password.” 

“Then what’s the password?!” Tooru was at a loss. Hajime’s ears turned bright red and he gave a huge sigh.

“Promise not to laugh or get mad?” Tooru blinked. Why would he get mad?

“Promise.” Hajime rolled onto his back, mumbling. “Can’t hear you Iwa-chan!” He rolled his eyes.

“I said, the password is-“ He took a shaky breath, face turning red, “Toshhiro”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha... Coming out scene is next!


	13. Jelousy

“Toshhiro.” Hajime groaned at Tooru's incredulous look, burying his head in his pillow.

“Shut up.” Tooru blinked again, still trying to process this new information.

“You’re password is Toshhiro.” Hajime groaned again before hugging the pillow, looking at Tooru hesitantly.

“Yeah.” 

“So…” Hajime was torn between being amused by the expression on Tooru’s face and how long it was taking him to think this through and being terrified that when he did figure it out he was going to look horrified and run out the door.

“Yeah…?”

“So.. you like Toshhiro?” Hajime buried his head in the pillow again.

“Yeah.” He looked up. Tooru’s jaw was hanging open.

“Not… Not Hikaru?” Hajime groaned. Tooru was being so slow about this.

“Hikaru’s great. I just… like Toshhiro... more.” Tooru blinked again, still looking at him with a slack jaw.

“So… you… like… boys?” Hajime groaned again.

“When you say it like that it’s weird. And shut your mouth. It’s making me uncomfortable.” Tooru snapped his jaw closed, still staring at Hajime in astonishment. 

“So… you’re… gay?” Tooru wasn’t sure what to say. He’d never associated with anyone in the LGBTQ+ community before. Well, Akaashi, but he spent all of his time with Akaashi pretending he had never heard Akaashi was gay, so that didn’t count. Hajime shrugged, hugging the pillow tighter.

“I dunno. I like girls, I just… like guys too.” Tooru blinked. You could do that?

“How does that work?” Hajime shot him a half hearted glare over the pillow.

“Really Oikawa? How do you think it works?” Oikawa colored (he doesn’t blush unless it’s a pretty blush when someone’s confessing). His brain function was functioning better now, and he realizes that it’s a stupid question. However:

“It’s just a question.” Hajime buried his face in the pillow again, but his ears betrayed his blush.

“Ugh. Fine.” He sat up again, face still red. “It’s like, I see this girl and I think she’s pretty, but I also see guys and I could see myself kissing them too. Happy?” Tooru thought it sounded sensible.

“Yeah.” He looked back at the phone, thinking. “What about Toshhiro?” Hajime shrugged, looking away, still red.

“He’s… gay. He’s the one who told me about it.” Tooru nodded thoughtfully.

“Wanna tell me how you met yet?” Hajime sighed. He could never win against Tooru.

“I was at the gym down the street and he was there. We spotted each other and got to talking. Eventually, we realized we went to the same school and we talked about our sports and he told me how he played baseball and asked me if I would want to play in their afternoon game and I said yes. After that, I went to his house and we hung out for a bit and he introduced me to Hikaru, who promptly asked me if I was his boyfriend. And then he told me he was gay and explained all the… gay stuff. He and Hikaru are really cool.” Hajime’s face took a slightly dreamy expression and Tooru felt a increasingly familiar stab of what he was beginning to suspect had something to do with anything Hajime did. 

“So… You’re okay with it?” Tooru snapped out of his funk.

“Yeah. Why… why would I have a problem? You’e still my best friend!” Hajime gave a relieved smile and Tooru hesitated.

“Have… Have you told anyone else yet?” Hajime shook his head and Tooru felt a swelling in his chest. He was the first! Hajime still liked him best!

“Are we done here?” Hajime moved to turn the game back on and Tooru let him. 

“If you’re ready to get your ass kicked again.” Hajime snorted.

“You’re delusional. I’ve won the last five.” Tooru was suddenly feeling competitive.

“Yeah? Bring it!” Hajime grinned at him. 

“You’re on.”

 

******************************

 

“I’m gonna do it.” Tooru looked up from his lunch to see Hajime looking out the window. Hanamaki nudged Matsukawa awake, pointing out the window. Tooru followed their line of sight and saw Toshhiro walking by, joking around with the baseball boys. Hanamaki smirked.

“Finally gonna make a move, lover boy?” Shortly after Hajime had confided with Tooru about his sexuality, he had told Hanamaki and Matsukawa. Neither of them found it hard to guess who he liked. Hajime gave him a halfhearted glare.

“Hikaru thinks I have a pretty good chance, if all the hints she’s been giving me is any clue.” 

“Hikaru,” Hanamaki sighed. “That’s one girl who I would share my cream puffs with.” Both Tooru and Hajime looked at him skeptically. Hajime was sure Matsukawa would have as well but he had fallen back asleep. Hanamaki hoarded cream puffs. He wouldn't share them with anyone, not even Matsukawa.

“Anyway,” He cleared his throat. “I’m gonna be late for practice.” Hanamaki started to whistle the wedding procession song and Matsukawa woke up in time to join in the last strain. Tooru giggled, a little uncomfortable. He couldn’t decide how he felt about Hajime having a significant other that was not him (because best friends surely count as significant others, Tooru reasoned).

 

***************************

 

“Do you think that this makes us awesome friends or terrible friends?” Matsukawa questioned from his position on top of the other two. They were camped out behind a bush outside the school, near where they knew Toshhiro would exit for for practice.

“Awesome friends, definitely.” Hanamaki’s voice was slightly mushed from the fact his face was practically in the dirt and most of Matsukawa’s weight was on him.

“We’re just worried for his wellbeing, that’s all.” Tooru had it a little easier, just supporting Matsukawa’s legs on his back. “Why did you choose the weird shaped bush again?” Hanamaki shrugged.

“Because of that bench right there.” He pointed with some trouble to a bench that was almost directly in front of the bush. “Admittedly, I do wish I had thought of Matsukawa’s size while choosing-“

“Hey!” Hanamaki talked over Matsukawa’s protest.

“-But this is the perfect distance to hear what he says.” Tooru opened his mouth to protest but Matsukawa slapped a hand over it before he could say anything.

“Shhh! Here they come!”

 

*****************************

 

Hajime took a deep breath before running up to Toshhiro.

“Hey!” Toshhiro turned around, smiling when he saw who it was. Behind him, several of the baseball boys elbowed each other, grinning. Hajime decided to take that as a good sign.

“Hey Iwaizumi. How are you today?” Hajime smiled a little shakily.

“I’m good. Can I talk to you?” The baseball boys started whispering to each other behind Toshhiro’s back as he nodded. 

“Sure.” He motioned the other boys ahead before smiling at Hajime and plopping down on a nearby bench. “What can I help you with?” Hajime hesitantly sat next to him.

“Uh… Well, I’ve been talking to Hikaru-“ Toshhiro groaned, mouth curling up in a smile anyway. 

“Yeah?” Hajime smiled back on instinct. 

“Well, she was telling me about that new Jason Bourne movie coming out that you want to see-“ 

“Did she?” Toshhiro sat up, ears red. Hajime nodded. Hikaru had not so subtly hinted at him that Toshhiro wanted to see it, possibly with a date. “Um… What else did she say?”

“Nothing, nothing!” Hajime assured him and Toshhiro sat back against the bench, weakly chuckling.

“Sisters… Man… Anyway, go on about the movie?” He looked at Hajime and Hajime thought he could see a glimmer of hope behind his eyes.

“Um… Well, I was wondering if- if you would… like to see it with me?” He could practically feel his temperature rising. Toshhiro looked at him for what felt like an eternity before he chuckled, looking away.

“Do you know what I told Hikaru right after we met?” Hajime wordlessly shook his head. This was either going to be really good or really bad. Toshhiro looked Hajime straight in the eye.

“I told her that there was no way in high heaven someone like you was allowed to be gay.” Hajime wasn’t sure if he should take that positively or negatively (either way his heart was trying to beat out of his chest), and was about to say so when Toshhiro closed the distance between them and kissed him.

 

*************************

 

“Judging by your smile, I’m gonna guess you have a new boyfriend.” Hanamaki teased. Hajime just grinned at him, too ecstatic for words. 

“Ooh, now he really is a lover boy!” Matsukawa cooed, patting Hajime’s cheeks. Hajime swatted him away.

“Let’s practice.” He still had that stupid grin on and swept past the other three without realizing that they were also just changing for practice or that Hanamaki and Tooru’s faces were streaked with dirt. Tooru didn’t think he’d notice. If he hadn’t heard Tooru gasp and Matsukawa yelp as he fell off of his perch or all three of them running away, he probably wouldn’t notice a little dirt.

“So how’d it go? Give us the dish!” Hanamaki said, wiggling his eyebrows. Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Like you didn’t hear it from your bush?” Okay, maybe he did notice. It was a little strange to hear him say that with the happy lilt still in his voice. Matsukawa slapped him on the back.

“We’re very proud of you, lover boy. Was that your first kiss?” Hajime looked away, blushing, still with that stupid smile.

“So what if it was?” Hanamaki wolf-whistled. Tooru was saved a comment by the coaches who, furious that they were late, made them run laps until they dropped. Hajime ran ten more laps than the other three, still with that stupid smile. Tooru wished (for the first time in his life) that Hajime would stop smiling like that. Tooru would rather see a scowl from Hajime for eavesdropping and not informing the coaches he was going to be late than that smile for another second. He made the mistake of mentioning it to Matsukawa.

“I wish he would stop smiling like that.” Matsukawa looked at him weirdly. 

“He just got his first boyfriend. Give him a break.” They both looked over to where Hajime was challenging Hanamaki to an arm wrestling contest.

“It’s just weird.” Tooru argued. “He’s usually frowning. I don’t like that smile.” Matsukawa turned again, giving Tooru an incredulous smile.

“Are you jealous? You have a girlfriend!” Tooru blinked. He had forgotten about her. Matsukawa laughed, slapping him on the back.

“It’s okay. Momma’s not gonna forget about you.” He snickered at Tooru’s protest before turning in time to see Hajime slam Hanamaki’s arm to the bench.

 

***************************

 

Later that night, Tooru tossed in his bed. So what if Hajime had a boyfriend. Matsukawa was right; he had a girlfriend. It didn’t matter if Hajime had a significant other.

“I told her there was no way in high heaven that someone like you was allowed to be gay” Toshhiro’s words echoed in his head. Tooru supposed he had a point. Hajime was kind and thoughtful, even with that rough outer shell. He was smart and athletic and good looking and anyone would be lucky to have him. 

“Are you jealous?” Matsukawa’s voice suddenly rang out. Tooru sat up, eyes widening. Was he jealous? He wished he could call Hajime by his first name like Hikaru (and probably Toshhiro too) could. He wished he could go to the movies with him and whisper together in the dark. He wished he could hold his hand and share a bed and cuddle like they used to when they were kids. Was this jealousy? Is that the feeling he’s experiencing ever since Hajime had head butted him? Is that why it felt like something simultaneously raged up and fell out of his chest when he saw Hajime kissing someone else? Tooru groaned, flopping back down.

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to make Tooru come out of denial somehow... Next chapter will explore family issues and show off Hajime's volleyball improvements!


	14. I Got Your Back

Much to Tooru’s dismay, Hajime and Toshhiro were almost inseparable. Toshhiro would sometimes pick Hajime up after practice and he and Hikaru had taken to sitting with them at lunch. Hajime would run off after Saturday practices to go play baseball or see a movie or go to the fair or whatever Toshhiro suggested that week. When they did hang out, Hajime would be texting Toshhiro in any downtime. And the hardest part was that it was almost impossible to hate the boy. Toshhiro was funny and kind. 

“Hey Oikawa!” Tooru turned at the sound of his name to see both Hajime and Toshhiro standing in the doorway of the classroom looking at him.

“What?” Toshhiro glanced at Hajime before walking forward, hands behind his back.

“Hajime and I went to one of those carnival things and Hajime saw this and said we just had to get it for you.” He produced from behind his back a cheap alien plushie. Tooru took it, eyes wide. Hajime had found this for him on a date?

“Thank you.” It was almost a whisper, but Toshhiro grinned and both he and Hajime sat down.

“You better be thankful. It took us ten tries to win that.” Tooru looked up at both of them. They spent money to win this in one of those rigged games. Hajime eyed him.

“Don’t you dare start crying on us. You’re an ugly crier.” Tooru sniffed.

“Am not.” Hajime rolled his eyes, turning to Toshhiro.

“I told you this would happen.” Toshhiro smiled at him, also rolling his eyes.

“I shouldn’t have made that bet.” Hajime smirked.

“Nope.” Toshhiro tilted Hajime’s chin up, giving him a kiss, sending Matsukawa and Hanamaki into retching noises.

“Woah guys, PDA alert!” Hanamaki shouted, covering both his and Matsukawa’s eyes. Hajime kicked him and Toshhiro laughed.

“You guys are just jealous.” Matsukawa sent the tiniest glance at Tooru.

“Whatever. Let’s eat.” Hanamaki, who had been pouting, rubbing his shin, perked up.

“Right! Is your sister joining us today?” Toshhiro sighed.

“Sadly, no. She’s ‘teaching some bigots a lesson’. Her words.” Hanamaki whistled.

“Impressive.” He pulled out his food and the others followed. Throughout lunch, Tooru pretended not to notice Toshhiro and Hajime stealing food from each other. He pretended not to see their hands linked under the desks.

 

*************************

“Hey Oikawa! Get up!” Oikawa moaned, rolling over in his bed.

“It’s Sunday Iwa-chan. Leave me alone.” Hajime sighed before yanking on the covers. Tooru was expecting it (years of experience would do that) and yanked it back. Hajime rolled his eyes, praying to whatever god was up there for strength, before bodily dragging his friend out of bed. 

“Iwa-channnnnn” Oikawa whined, curling up in a ball on the floor. He had stayed up late to finish marathoning the X-Files and deserved more sleep than that.

“Nope. We’re going to the park and you’re going to toss to me. We haven’t done that in a while.” Tooru sniffed from his ball.

“You’re not hanging out with Toshhiro?” He tried not to sound petulant. 

“He offered to go to that alien movie that you talked about but I didn’t think it would be right to go without you, so I turned him down. Now get up.” He left the room without another word. Tooru uncurled from his ball and stared at the door in amazement. Hajime turned down a date to hang out with him?

“Hurry up Trashywaka!” Hajime shouted from outside the door where he had sat down. He felt bad for not hanging out with Tooru recently.

“Coming!” He scrambled to find the appropriate clothes. He opened the door to see Hajime idly tossing a volleyball.

“Finally. Let’s go.” He stood up, tucking the ball under his arm, and they walked to the park, talking like old times. Tooru was acutely aware of how close Hajime was standing by him as they walked. Hajime glanced at him. He thought Tooru looked out of it.

“Oi! Kawa.” Tooru blinked before frowning at him.

“Don’t use my name in greeting.” Hajime rolled his eyes, tossing him the volleyball.

“Whatever. Toss to me.” He got in position and Oikawa got ready before tossing to him. Hajime took a deep breath before running up and Tooru, caught by surprise on how fast he got there, tossed a little too late. Hajime bent backwards, trying to get a hand on it, and miraculously sent it over. The movement, however, caused him to fall flat on his back.

“What the fuck was that?!” Hajime managed to ask once he got his breath back. Tooru squeaked.

“I forgot how fast you were!” Hajime rolled his eyes, retrieving the ball. 

“Faster than whatever you just tossed me.” He passed it back to Tooru, hands brushing over the ball. Tooru shivered. 

“Got it.” They stayed out for a long time, Tooru tossing and Hajime slamming it down. Eventually Tooru stopped, staring at his friend in disbelief.

“How are you not playing tomorrow? You hit harder than Hanamaki!” Hajime shrugged.

“I don’t think the coaches actually watch when I play.” He motioned to Tooru. “Come on, let’s go find a store for ice cream.” Tooru followed, tucking the volleyball under his arm.

“They don’t watch you during practice? Why not? They put you on the team!” Hajime shrugged again.

“They liked my stamina. They said I had ‘a good start’. Not very promising for game time.” Hajime tried not to sound too bitter about it, but he could tell Tooru wasn’t buying it. It really wasn’t pleasant to have gone from being the ace of their middle school to a bench warmer in high. 

“Good start my ass. We need you tomorrow.” Hajime would be fresh blood, not to mention a huge asset against this new school, who had a team up to par with Aoba Johsai. Hajime rolled his eyes, giving a faint smile. 

“Not going to happen.” Tooru sighed and Hajime felt a little bad. “You wanna see that alien movie?” Tooru perked up.

“Really?!” Hajime chuckled.

“Sure.” That would get him out of the house a little longer. He texted Toshhiro, telling him he couldn’t be at his phone for a while, before putting it on silent. Now his parents couldn’t call him back to the house. He loved the twins, but they were a handful, so much that it took all his parents energy (and good tempers) and he had taken to getting out of the house as often as possible to avoid being yelled at. Or ignored. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand why that was happening, he did. That made it a hundred times worse because he couldn’t even be mad at them for it. He and Tooru walked to the movie theater in a comfortable silence. Hajime ended up buying the tickets (Tooru hadn’t thought to grab his wallet before Hajime had dragged him from the house). As they sat down for the movie, Tooru noticed Hajime’s pocket lighting up.

“Someone’s trying to catch you.” Hajime glanced at his phone before pocketing it again.

“Just my parents. It’ll be fine.” Tooru looked at him calculatingly.

“But… What if they need your help with the twins?” 

“They don’t”. They probably just want to yell at him for leaving home without telling anyone. Again.

“But how can you be sure-“ Hajime cut him off.

“I know they don’t Oikawa. Drop it. Watch your shitty alien movie.” Oikawa protested (as expected) and dropped the conversation like Hajime wanted. The movie was truly terrible. Even Oikawa, the alien enthusiast, spent more time leaning over to talk about the impossibilities of scenes than their awesomeness. If Hajime’s phone lit up twice more during the movie, neither of them commented on it.

“That. Was. Terrible.” Hajime said, exiting the theater. Tooru pouted.

“It wasn’t that bad…” Hajime laughed.

“Come on Oikawa, even you can’t defend that monstrosity.” He turned his phone on just in time to catch a call from his parents. “Ugh, hold on, I have to take this.” He walked off and Tooru followed quietly. 

“Hey mom.” Hajime picked up the phone.

“Where have you been?! Why haven’t you been answering our calls?!” Hajime sighed, pinching his nose.

“I was watching a movie with Oikawa. We turned our phones off.”

“It’s unacceptable young man! You have to tell us when you leave the house! know how much work we have with the twins!”

“I thought you wanted ‘down time’, so I tried not to disturb you.” Hajime made quotations around ‘down time’.

“Don’t get snarky with me Hajime. Come home, NOW.” She hung up. Hajime rolled is eyes, shutting his phone off and turning back to Tooru.

“I gotta go. Mom needs me at home. See you tomorrow?” Tooru nodded, waving him off. Hajime was fighting with his parents? He walked home, pondering why that might be.

 

*************************

“You’re grounded.” Hajime resisted rolling his eyes. Grounded. Whoo. That’s not very effective. “You come home right after practice and games and no friends over the weekends.” Hajime wanted to roll his eyes again. She hadn’t noticed when he had walked right past her this morning. She’d never know if he took one of his shortcuts (thank god for windows).

“Are you even listening to me?!” Hajime looked at her.

“I’m grounded. No friends. Come home right after school. Got it.” His mother narrowed her eyes at his flat tone. 

“You’ve had an attitude ever since the twins showed up and I don’t like it.” Well, Hajime didn’t like how she never had any time for his accomplishments but plenty of time for his shortcomings. “You’re to set an example for them and you’re pulling all these stunts. Maybe you should go back on medications.” She rubbed her eyes and Hajime bristled.

“I don’t need medications.” 

“You’ve been moody ever since you stopped. It must have been the medications. I’ll get a prescription.” She walked off in the general direction of her room.

“Where’s dad?” Hajime asked, causing her to quickly turn around to shush him.

“The twins finally fell asleep. Let’s not wake them up. Your father is sleeping as well.” Hajime nodded. 

“I’m just gonna be in my room. Doing homework.” His mother nodded, disappearing into his parent’s room. Hajime slipped into his room. True to his word, he finished his homework before texting Toshhiro, who responded almost immediately.

 

Hajime:  
Hey.

Toshhiro:  
Hey. :) How was the movie?

Hajime stared at his screen in shock. How did Toshhiro know?

Toshhiro:  
I’m assuming that’s why you were gone for three hours.

Hajime:  
Yeah. It was shitty. As expected.

Toshhiro:  
Haha. Glad we didn’t see it then.

Hajime:  
You’re not mad?

Toshhiro:  
Of course not. :) I think it was really sweet of you to want to see it with Oikawa. 

Toshhiro:  
And it saved us a bad date ;P

Hajime chuckled. 

Hajime:  
I don’t think we can have a bad date.

Hajime:  
Speaking of, I’m grounded

Toshhiro:  
What?! What for?

Hajime:  
Being moody and having an attitude and sneaking out of the house without telling anyone

Toshhiro:  
That’s not very cool. 

Toshhiro:  
Can I still come see you?

Hajime:  
I won’t tell if you don’t 

Hajime smiled, sending the text. He glanced at the clock. The baseball game would probably be over by now. Toshhiro would be there soon. He opened his text window with Tooru.

Hajime:  
FYI, I’m officially grounded.

Trash:  
WHAT?!?! IWA-CHANNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!! WHY?!?!?!?! :( :( :( :(

Hajime rolled his eyes. Always so dramatic.

Hajime:  
Parental units are unhappy. They also want to restart the medication

Trash:  
Not cool >:(

Hajime:  
Tell me about it.

There was a knock on his window and Hajime shut off his phone, smiling, before opening it to let Toshhiro in.

“Hey.” Toshhiro slid onto Hajime’s bed quietly, giving him a kiss. “You alright?” Hajime gave a small shrug.

“Mostly.” Toshhiro kissed him again before enveloping him in a hug. “Thanks.” Hajime smiled into his shoulder, hugging him back. Toshhiro always knew just what to do. Tooru sometimes did, but his personality hindered him occasionally.

“Anything for you.” Toshhiro whispered, pulling him closer. “Snuggle nap?” Hajime chuckled. It was something that had happened accidentally during one of their movie nights and Hikaru had coined the phrase after discovering them.

“Sounds good.”

 

******************************

 

Tooru frowned at his phone. Hajime stopped answering his texts. That wasn’t very nice. He threw his phone onto his floor, flopping down on his bed. Maybe his mom had taken Hajime’s phone away too as part of the grounding.

‘I’m officially grounded’. Tooru smiled, sitting up. He said ‘officially!’ When they were younger and Hajime had gotten grounded, sometimes he would sneak Tooru in through his bedroom window for a quick playdate. He got up. He’d drop by to see how Hajime was doing. He walked the distance between their houses quickly and sneaked around to the back of the house. Hajime’s shades were drawn, but the window was cracked. Tooru carefully opened the window before fumbling for the shade’s cord. He got the shade halfway up before starting to slip in. However, his feet encountered something warm and solid under a blanket.

“Iwa-chan?” Was he napping? Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. He slipped fully onto the bed, trying not to hit his friend. However, more of the bed was occupied than was expected, and he ended up falling onto the floor, emitting a small yelp before covering his mouth with his hand. The figure on the bed stirred.

“Oikawa?” Tooru felt his heart drop. Toshhiro was already here. He was protectively curled around Hajime whose head was buried in his chest.

“Toshhiro.” Toshhiro nodded, carefully lifting a finger to his lips.

“Hajime’s still asleep.” Tooru nodded, face burning as Toshhiro carefully stroked Hajime’s hair before returning his hand to its original position on Hajime’s waist.

“Okay. I- yeah… Sorry. I just wanted to check in on him. I’ll leave now.” He tried to carefully climb over the other two boys, Toshhiro moving as much as he could to allow this without disturbing Hajime (disgustingly sweet, Tooru thought). However, as Tooru rolled out the window, he hit his head on the till, causing the window to slam shut behind him. Tooru winced, crouching under it, as he heard Hajime make a sound of dissent, Toshhiro’s hurried shushing noise, and Hajime’s mom yelling.

 

********************

 

“Hajime, I swear to god, if you just snuck Tooru in through your window-“ Hajime woke up to a window slamming, his room door opening, and his mother’s voice. How pleasant. He curled deeper into Toshhiro, who rubbed reassuring circles on his back.

“Hello Iwaizumi-san. Pardon the intrusion?” Toshhiro sounded bashful and Hajime snorted sleepily.

“Toshhiro-kun? What are you doing here?” Hajime thought his mother sounded shocked. Good.

“Ah-“ Toshhiro’s hand left Hajime’s back and Hajime imagined him scratching his head. “Hajime texted me, and he seemed down, so I came to cheer my boyfriend up?” 

“Your- your… Boyfriend?” Toshhiro stilled.

“You… didn’t tell her about us?”

“Yes… Why didn’t you tell me about this?” He could hear his mother’s foot tapping. Hajime shrugged.

“You never asked.” He mumbled it just loud enough for her to hear, preferring to go back to sleep. His mother crushed that dream by yanking him off of the bed.

“If you don’t mind, Toshhiro-kun, Hajime’s grounded, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Hajime practically felt Toshhiro hesitate, and he opened one eye, giving a sleepy smile he didn’t mean.

“S’okay. Thank’s for coming.” Toshhiro didn’t look convinced, but he slid off the bed, bending down to give Hajime a goodbye kiss, before leaving out the door. Hajime’s mother waited until they heard the front door slam before starting in.

 

*************************

 

“What were you thinking?!?!” The shout is loud enough to make Tooru wince from outside the window. “You can’t just get a boyfriend and not tell me! I didn’t even know you were gay!” Toshhiro appeared at Tooru’s side, apparently having the same idea, and the two exchanged a worried look. Tooru was sure that Toshhiro also knew how much more irritable Hajime became if someone woke him up.

“Bi.” Hajime still sounded sleepy.

“What?!”

“Not gay. Bi.” Hajime yawned.

“Whatever! You didn’t tell me! And all those sleepovers you had with Toshhiro?” Toshhiro winced.

“Nothing happened.” Now Hajime was starting to sound irritated. “They were just like any other sleepover, except with more cuddling.” Tooru glanced over at Toshhiro who shrugged, blushing with a shy grin.

“What can I say? I’m a romantic.” Tooru resisted rolling his eyes before turning back to the window.

“Don’t get sassy with me young man. No more sleepovers with Toshhiro.” Toshhiro made a whining noise in distress and Hajime yelled.

“What?! That’s not fair!” His mother yelled right back.

“Life’s not fair! I’m just doing what I would if you had a girlfriend! You should have told me about your relationship! You knew I would accept you!” A sigh. “Is this because of the twins? Are you trying to punish us for adopting them by cutting us off?”

“Why do you make everything about the twins?” By this point, Hajime sounded well and truly pissed off. 

“What else could it be?! You were never like this before!” Tooru could feel the waves of frustration coming off of Hajime. From another room, a baby’s wail was heard, the other joining in soon after. His mother sighed.

“Phone.”

“What?” Hajime sounded surprised.

“Your phone. Give it to me.”

“No! Why?!”

“I told you not two hours ago you were grounded and I come in to find a boy in your room. Phone, now.” An aggravated sigh. “You’ll get this back when your attitude improves.”

“Fine. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“No. We need your help with the twins.” A groan from Hajime, quickly stifled. “Don’t moan. You’re part of this family and you need to help out.” Silence, then a muffled scream from Hajime before the door slammed shut. Tooru winced.

“I feel really bad now.” Toshhiro said quietly and Tooru nodded. If it hadn’t been for them, this wouldn’t have happened.

“In our defense, all we wanted was to be good friends and cheer him up.” Toshhiro looked at him, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah…” Tooru realized what he was getting at.

“I-I-I mean, I was trying to be a good friend. You were trying to be a good boyfriend. I mean- not like you’re not a good boyfriend, Iwa-chan likes you a lot-“ Tooru cut himself off, embarrassed and Toshhiro laughed behind his hand.

“I knew what you meant. Thanks though.” He stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. “I gotta go. See you at school?” Tooru nodded, not trusting himself with words. Half the time he liked Toshhiro. The other half he wanted to strangle him so he could have Hajime all for himself. Toshhiro gave another smile and, with a little wave, left.

 

*****************************

 

“Iwa-chan, I know you’re not playing, and I know I said you could use it, but get off my phone. It’s distracting you from my fabulous.” Hajime socked him in the shoulder without looking up, finishing his text. Tooru pouted.

“If you’re going to punch me, at least look at me while you do it.” Hajime pressed send before making direct eye contact.

“Fine.” He curled his hand back into a fist, setting the phone down with the other and Tooru backed up, hands up in surrender.

“That doesn’t mean you need to redo it!” Hajime’s lips curved up in a smile, playing along.

“No, no. You’re right. It wasn’t fair to you. Let me make it up to you.” He chased Tooru around the gym, both of them laughing and egging the other on until the coaches intervened in the form of suicides (“If you have enough energy to run around like that right before a game, you have enough energy complete thirty suicides!”). By the end of it, Tooru was lying on the floor, panting, Hajime back on his phone, leaning on the bench beside him.

“After all that, and you’re still on my phone?” Hajime frowned, looking at the crowd.

“I’m was trying to convince Toshhiro not to skip practice to watch the game.” He made a face at the stands and Tooru looked up in time to see Toshhiro send kissey faces back.

“Go away!” Hajime mouthed it at him and Toshhiro shook his head, looking pleased with himself and gesturing beside him. Hajime groaned as Hikaru waved cheekily.

“That’s that.” He put the phone on the bench, turning to Tooru. 

“Time to play.” Tooru smiled.

“We’re gonna crush them!”

 

***********************************

 

Tooru looked at the other team in shock. How did they get so good so fast? And why had they decided to play Seijou on one of the days Tooru got to be setter? Sure, he had gotten a service ace, but that was mostly luck. Seijou had won the first game, but their opponents had won the second and were almost at match point for the third, having absolutely crushed Seijou, much to the latters surprise. He glanced at the scoreboard. 12-22. So much for crushing them. They were going to lose big time.

“Good serve.” He mumbled, getting into position.

“Oikawa, snap out of it!” Tooru looked sideways to see a very irritated looking Hajime. “Game’s not over yet, dumbass.” Several of their teammates shushed him, looking scandalized at either his comment or his interruption. Hanamaki served and the other team easily received it, and shot it back at them for another point.

“Time out!” Tooru turned to look at his coach before trudging with the rest of the team back to the bench, where he was promptly met by a resounding slap to the face, one that shut several people up in astonishment (in the stands and on the court).

“What the hell are you doing?! Snap out of it!” Hajime raised his hand to slap him again and Matsukawa quickly grabbed him. “You’re the goddamn leader out there, you’re not allowed to give up! Let go of me!” Hanamaki, who had grabbed his other arm, shook his head.

“As much as we’d like to let you beat some sense into him, it’s not allowed.” Hajime snorted before meeting Tooru with steely eyes.

“You can turn this around, but you have to believe in your team more. Maeda wants to show improvement, whereas Aoki needs a break. Listen to what your players are telling you. You watch everyone for God’s sake. Use your stupid brain! This game’s not done. You wanted to crush them, right?” Tooru slowly nodded and Matsukawa and Hanamaki released Hajime’s arms. “Then go!” Tooru turned to the coach, who was looking at Hajime with an impressed smile.

“That’s about what I would say too. Aoki, do you need a substitution?” Aoki sputtered.

“No! I don’t know what he’s talking about. I can keep playing!” Tooru saw his chance.

“Why doesn’t Aoki take a break and let Iwa-izumi play for a bit?” Hajime’s eyes widened in surprise, both in the fact Tooru used his full name and about his suggestion.

“What?” The coach appraised him for a second before nodding.

“Alright. Iwaizumi, you’re in.” He motioned to the referee, who called the substitution over Aoki’s protests.

“That’s not fair!” The coach turned to Aoki.

“Relax, Aoki. It’s just a practice match, and we haven’t seen Iwaizumi’s playing in a while.” Tooru glanced at Hajime, who was trying his hardest not to raise an eyebrow or roll his eyes. He caught Tooru staring and gave a quick smile.

“Let’s go.” The team took the court again, Hajime sliding into Aoki’s vacant spot. Tooru took a quick breath. He could do this. He could do this and show off Hajime’s awesomeness at the same time.

“Nice serve!” Hajime turned to smile at Maeda, a second year.

“Nice serve, Maeda. Let’s get this party started!” Several members of the team cheered and the other team looked uneasy. Maeda serve was caught by the other team, who sent it back over to be blocked by their third year middle blocker. One point for them. Maeda served again and the other team received it, spiking it back over. Their libero got it, sending it to Tooru, who, with a quick glance at Hajime (who scowled in disapproval at him) sent it to Maeda for a second point. Maeda served one last time, but the ball was out of bounds. Hajime nodded at him.

“That’s alright. Good job.” Maeda flashed him a quick smile.

“Are you the senpai here or am I?” He laughed at Hajime’s stricken face. “Just kidding with you. Thanks though.” Hajime nodded, turning back to Tooru, who was up to serve.

“If you miss this, you get to babysit the twins next week.” Tooru’s eyes widened.

“Iwa-chan, no fair.” Hajime smirked before facing forward again.

“Also, if you hit me in the head with this serve, I’ll tell Hanamaki about the incident with-“

“Not necessary! I won’t hit you!” Tooru hastily cut him off. The referee blew his whistle and Tooru threw the ball up in the air, aiming for the area between two players. Service ace! His team cheered and Hajime nodded.

“Again.” It was less of a statement and more of a motivation. Tooru took a breath before slamming it at a first year he had noticed wasn’t very good at receiving yet. It ricochetted off his arms and out of bounds. His fans cheered and Hajime just turned to him with an eyebrow raised. Tooru shrugged, flashing him a peace sign and winking.

“I’m crushing them, as promised. All’s fair in love and volleyball!” Hajime rolled his eyes, turning from again.

“Whatever.” Tooru served again, except this time, he miscalculated and it went straight to the libero, who received it and sent it to their setter, who threw it to the ace. The ace slammed it down, and Hajime missed it by a couple centimeters.

“Sorry.” He brushed off his uniform, face determined. “I’ll get the next one.” Tooru nodded, moving the rotation.

“I’m tossing to you next. Be ready.” Hajime squinted at him.

“Why do I feel like you’re saying that because you’re going to give me an impossible toss?” Oikawa gasped, putting on an innocent face.

“Who, me? Never! Go serve, Iwa-chan! And you better get it in.” Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, Trashywaka.” He got took a deep breath before throwing the ball up, sending it over with more force than expected by the other team, judging from the yelp the player who received it gave. Hajime locked eyes with Tooru, running into position. The second Tooru got it, he threw it as fast as he dared.

“Iwa-chan!” Hajime’s eyes widened as he saw the speed, jumping for it. However, he could tell that it was moving too fast, so he switched hands, praying for the best. The ball slammed onto the court, followed by a shocked silence, but Hajime was too busy yelling at Tooru to notice.

“Never throw me that again.” Tooru chuckled nervously, hands out defensively.

“Okay!” Hajime sighed at his antics before serving again. The rest of the match proceeded like that. Tooru would throw Hajime difficult hits, causing Hajime to yell at him, and they both would encourage their teammates. The opposing team won the third set, but Seijoh shut them out of the next one. Much to Tooru’s dismay, the coach put Aoki back in for the last set. He pouted a little, watching Hajime walk back to the bench. He would pick Hajime over Aoki any day. Unfortunately, Aoki seemed to sense that. Seijoh won the last one 25-23 and to Tooru’s delight, Hajime gave him a victorious hug. He was only too happy to comply, squeezing his best friend (and definite not-crush) back. Too soon, Hajime pulled back.

“Time to line up.” He was still smiling victoriously and Tooru thought about how much his face changed when he wasn’t frowning.

“Right!” They thanked the other team for the game and went back to the locker rooms, everyone chattering excitedly. Unexpectedly, the locker room door opened and everyone looked on as Toshhiro walked in, headed straight for Hajime, who looked surprised.

“Tosh, what-“ Before Hajime could finish, Toshhiro had both hands on his hips, pulling him closer and giving him an open mouth kiss. Tooru’s winning high immediately crashed as he watched Hajime’s eyes widen before shutting, kissing his boyfriend back with his hand hesitantly tracing over Toshhiro’s cheek. What seemed like whole hours later, Hajime pulled away, still looking a little stunned.

“What was that for?” Toshhiro smiled at him.

“For being so amazing.” He leaned forward to kiss him again, but Hajime stopped him.

“But I didn’t do anything. I barely even played.” Hazel eyes stared questionably at dark brown ones and Toshhiro laughed.

“You never cease to surprise me.” A hand moved to go through Hajime’s hair and Tooru felt a stab of something he wished wasn’t envy. “Didn’t you notice? You practically lead the team after that third game.” Toshhiro leaned forward again, but someone behind him cleared his throat.

“Sorry,” Aoki drawled, not sounding sorry at all, “But this is the volleyball team’s locker room, not the fag make out room.” Both Hajime and Toshhiro stiffened. Tooru winced when he saw the glare in Hajime’s eyes. The other boys in the club exchanged wary glances before packing up and slipping out the door.

“Excuse me?” Toshhiro’s voice took an icy politeness as he stepped away from Hajime, turning to face the other boy. Aoki met his glare.

“You heard me. Leave.” He gave Hajime a once over. “And take your slutty kouhai with you.” Tooru’s eyes turned to slits. How dare he be so rude? Next to him, Hanamaki and Matsukawa had the same idea. Toshhiro took a step forward, fists curling, but Hajime threw out an arm, not breaking eye contact with Aoki.

“Do we have a problem Aoki?” His voice was laced with angry energy. Aoki’s smirk grew.

“I don’t feel safe here, knowing you’re staring at my ass. I think you should quit. Join the baseball team. I hear they’re very…” A quick look at Toshhiro, “Queer accepting. Not surprising, they’re probably all queer themselves”. The hand Hajime was using to hold Toshhiro back with curled into a fist.

“Hey Toshhiro-“ Hikaru stuck her head around the door, about to tell her brother to hurry up, and stopped, eyes narrowing as she took in the scene of her brother and his boyfriend glaring with curled fists at another boy. A boy who turned to look at her.

“No girls in the boys locker room sweetie.” He was being patronizing and she hated it.

“Toshhiro, let’s go. Mom’s going to wonder why we’re so late.” Aoki snickered.

“Yeah faggot. Run home to Mommy. Maybe your boyfriend could give you head. Or your sister; she’s pretty enough. But I bet she’s a lesbian. Boy, I’d hate to be your twin and get stuck with the faggot gene.” Now Hikaru saw why the other two were so mad.

“At least he has a boyfriend. I don’t see you with anyone.” 

“Right back at you, bitch.” Toshhiro moved forward again.

“Don’t talk to my sister like that.” Aoki’s eyes glimmered.

“I can talk to her any way I want.” Toshhiro moved again. “You wanna go gay boy? Bring it. I’ll take your fucking ass down.” Hikaru and Tooru realized around the same time what was going to happen. Either Hajime or Toshhiro was going to punch Aoki. Alone, he might have had a chance, but with both of them on him, no way. Then Aoki could get them both suspended, if not expelled, for starting a fight. Hikaru stepped forward first, positioning herself between the three boys.

“You wanna go at them? You have to get through me first. And I’m going to warn you, I take martial arts.” Tooru was next.

“You don’t get to talk about my friends like that Aoki. You’re going to regret this, I’ll make sure of it.” 

“You can’t take us all down.” Hanamaki and Matsukawa squeezed their way behind Tooru and Hikaru.

“Leave Iwaizumi-kun and his boyfriend alone, Aoki. Their life choices are none of your concern.” Maeda added from his locker, shoving the last of his things in his bag. Aoki turned to look at his fellow second year, the only of the upper-classmen to stay.

“Even you Maeda? I’d never take you for a fag lover.” Maeda colored.

“For your information, my aunts are happily living together and would happily kick your but for me if I told them what you’ve just said to your own teammate.” He slung his bag over his shoulder. “If you don’t like it, leave. I doubt Iwaizumi’s going anywhere anytime soon.” Aoki huffed.

“You’re all disgusting.” Another huff. “I don’t want to be on a team with a faggot.” He threw his locker open, shoving it entire contents into his bag, and stormed out. Hajime took a big inhale before giving a noise of frustration and kicking over a bench.

“Fuck you too!” He shouted at the shut door. “Fuck you and your stupid homophobic thoughts and your shitty personality! Ugh!” He threw his towel at the door before abruptly crouching down, hands grabbing at his hair. Toshhiro gave him a fond smile before crouching down with him, giving a one armed hug while using the other hand to pry Hajime’s fingers away from his hair.

“I’ll do it babe.” Hajime sighed, resting his forehead on Toshhiro’s shoulder and Toshhiro carded his free hand through Hajime's hair.

“It just pisses me off.” Tooru reached out a hand to Hajime’s back but withdrew it, knowing it would be awkward.

“You’re self control’s better now, Iwa-chan. A couple years back Aoki’s face would have been caved in.”

“If I see him tomorrow, it still might be.” Hanamaki grinned.

“Easy there, muscle boy. Can’t have you kicked off the team.” He slung an arm around Tooru and Matsukawa. “Let us take care of it.” Hajime turned his head to look at them gratefully.

“Thanks guys.” He turned to face Maeda. “Thanks for staying, Maeda-san.” Maeda gave him a sheepish grin.

“The least I could do. Sorry for not stepping in earlier.” Hajime waved him off.

“You could have left with the others. We appreciate it.” Toshhiro echoed his thanks.

“It really does mean a lot to us.” He helped Hajime up. Maeda mumbled a quick ‘you’re welcome’ before leaving. Matsukawa nudged Tooru, who realized the other three were almost done packing. He quickly started throwing his things into his bag.

“Iwa-chan, do you want to stop for a snack on the way home?” Hajime shook his head, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Can’t. Grounded, remember?” Tooru sighed. He had forgotten about that detail. The six of them exited the locker room together, chatting. Tooru spent more time reminding himself not to look at Hajime and Toshhiro than the conversation. Eventually, they reached the point where Hanamaki and Matsukawa split.

“Send us a text about the revenge plan.” Hanamaki called and Tooru grinned.

“Of course.” Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Since I know I can’t talk you out of it, don’t get carried away. And don’t tell me what you’re going to do. I don’t want any of the blame to land on me.” Tooru laughed.

“Got it Iwa-chan!” He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to face Hikaru.

“I want in.” Tooru hesitated and she rolled her eyes. “Come on. He said some pretty rude things about myself and my brother, not to mention my brother’s boyfriend. I want in.” Tooru was afraid she was going to punch him.

“Alright. If you give me your number, I’ll add you to the chat.” Hikaru wrote her number on a piece of paper, handing it to Tooru, grinning.

“I look forward to working with you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise Hajime will be single by next chapter. I just needed Toshhiro to bring out Hajime and Tooru's bond. And to get Tooru jealous :P 
> 
> This is probably won't be updated again for a month or so as I am going out of town and out of wifi. Sorry :(
> 
> Also, sorry for the language. Aoki was very upset. Revenge to come :)


	15. Operation GoT: Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long! This chapter isn't really cooperating with me right now, so I'm adding the little I have written as a promise that I'll add more later! Also, this is read as if it is seen on Tooru's phone

Tooru:  
Alright, anyone have any revenge options?

Ikeda-san:  
I think we should go Game of Thrones on his ass

Mattsun:  
Who’s this

Ikeda-san:  
Ikeda Hikaru 

Makki:  
Hello cream puff ;) Joining us on this beautiful escapade?

Ikeda-san  
Yup!

Tooru:  
Isn’t Game of Thrones a little too violent to count as non-expulserary?

Ikeda-san:  
Who cares?

Mattsun:  
Yeah, its not like anyone would feel too bad if we dumped a pot of liquid gold on his head

Tooru:  
I’m too pretty to go to jail! >:(

Makki:  
I think u misspelled ‘disgusting’ 

Tooru:  
Mean Makki! Im fabulous and you know it  
No killing

Ikeda-san:  
What about castration?

Makki:  
Wow ur brutal  
I mean beautiful :) 

Mattsun:  
But also brutal 

Ikeda-san:  
I’m just trying to make someone else’s life better later on   
And also to prevent the reproduction of homophobic jerks

Mattsun:  
That’s it, I’m changing your name on my phone to Daenerys

Tooru:  
Me too!

Daenerys:  
Why thank you

Tooru:  
Anyway, back to revenge 

Makki:  
Hey Matsu, remember that vine we saw with the trip wire?

Mattsun:  
Yeah 

Makki:  
Wat about that? 

Tooru:  
What vine?

Makki:  
Okay so there was this dude right? And his friend put a trip wire in doorframe and told him there was cake and the dude ran and tripped on the trip wire and face planted into the cake 

Makki:  
It was awesome 

Daenerys:  
Cake’s a little tame for what we’re thinking of, isn’t it?

Makki:  
Tru… Matsu, u still have that HCl?

Tooru:  
I dont want to knwo why you had hydrochloric acid  
*know

Mattsun:  
Nah, we used it all

Makki:  
Don’t worry Oikawa, we wont tell u. Top secret stuff

Tooru:  
Good  
And we’ll hold on to this idea as a back up. Any other ideas?

Daenerys:  
My brother has plenty of baseball bats we can borrow. We’re also re-modeling our deck, so there’s lots of nails. We can beat him to death 

Makki:  
Easy there Joffery

Tooru:   
I said no killing! I’m too young and beautiful to be locked away!  
Plus, Iwa-chan would kill me

Mattsun:  
Hey everyone, take this quiz!  
http://www.playbuzz.com/johnck10/the-official-game-of-thrones-character-quiz

Tooru:  
Did you really just send us a Game of Thrones character quiz?

Mattsun:  
Yup. Tell me who you get

Tooru:  
Mattsun, this is supposed to be serious

Mattsun:  
I am being serious. Tell me who you get. I got Tryion

Makki:  
I got Arya! I love her, she’s so baddass. She just needs a better sense of humor.

Tooru:  
If I take your stupid quiz, can we get back on topic?

Mattsun:  
Fine

Tooru:  
What if I’d rather run away with the wildling and not stay on the wall or go back to my father’s house?

Mattsun:  
Then it sucks to be you

Tooru:  
I got Daenerys!

Daenerys:  
I got Jon Snow.

Makki:  
U dead. RIP Daenerys

Daenerys:  
Shut up  
Toshhiro also got Jon Snow

Makki:  
Rip the Ikeda twins  
Stabbed in the back by their own men

Mattsun:  
And the rest of us live another day

Daenerys:  
Shut up!  
I’m so mad about that. At least they brought him back in the show...

Makki:  
Did you hold the door?

Daenerys:   
…

Mattsun:  
You sacrificed yourself, didn’t you?

Daenerys:  
Maybe…  
Btw, Toshhiro sent it to Hajime and he also got Jon Snow

Tooru:  
Noooo! Iwa-chan!

Makki:  
Rip Oikawa  
Now about that revenge…


	16. Operation GoT Part II

Tooru stood behind the locker room, listening to Aoki give his resignation from the club. Matsukawa, Hanamaki, and Maeda were right behind him. The others gave them strange looks before continuing to get ready for morning practice.

“I just don’t feel comfortable being in the locker room with Iwaizumi-kun. I always feel like he’s staring at me when I change.” Tooru growled. Hajime always changed facing the wall because he wasn’t comfortable with looking at people.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Aoki. You’re a great asset to this team. Would you like me to talk to Iwaizumi about it?” Tooru cast a quick glimpse to Hajime as he walked through the door.

“Giving his resignation”, he mouthed and Iwaizumi nodded, setting his bag down and pulling out his kneepads. Outside, Aoki gave an audible sigh.

“I’ve already tried and he didn’t do anything. I don’t think it would help.” Oikawa scowled. Stupid homophobic liar jerk. He turned his head slightly, making eye contact with Matsukawa and Hanamaki. They were still on. About now, Ikeda should be talking with the track team, ranting about how mean this boy had been to her brother and to Iwaizumi, you remember him right, he used to come by and practice with us? 

“Why are you all standing around the door?” Hajime asked, having finished changing. He started to push past them and Tooru grabbed his shirt.

“No Iwa-chan!” Hajime gave him a weird look.

“Why not? Practice is about to start, isn’t it?” Tooru sighed, glancing at the others before letting go of his friends shirt and following him into the gym. The coaches instantly looked up at them as they walked in. 

“Ah, Iwaizumi. Would you come here for a second? The rest of you, run two laps and then start stretching.” Irihata waved Hajime over and Tooru glanced quickly to the other three and then to Hajime’s retreating back before making up his mind.

“Ah, Oikawa. We really only need Iwaizumi right now.” Mizouguchi looked vaguely uncomfortable and Tooru hid a scowl behind a cheery smile.

“It’s alright coach! I already know what this is about.” He waved towards the door vaguely. “Aoki-san wasn’t being very quiet.” He put a slightly sarcastic emphasis on the -san, shooting the boy in question a slightly menacing smile. The coaches looked at him, then each other, and sighed.

“Do you mind?” Irihata asked, looking from Aoki to Hajime.

“Yes.” 

“No.” Hajime glared at the older boy. “It’s fine coach, Oikawa can stay.” Aoki huffed, but didn’t press the point. Mizouguchi cleared his throat nervously.

“So… Um… Iwaizumi. Aoki has informed us that you are… gay?” Hajime stiffened and Tooru winced. Maybe he should have given him a heads up.

“Yes… I’m bisexual… Why?” He eyed the coach warily.

“Aoki has expressed concern about his privacy in the locker rooms-“

“Bullshit!” Hajime exploded and Tooru grabbed the back of his shirt on instinct as he took a step forward. Hajime didn’t appear to notice. “That’s a fucking low blow Aoki. Total bullshit!” Tooru spoke up before Hajime could lose the rest of his cool.

“I’m going to have to agree with Iwa-chan here. He’s very aware about other people’s concerns. Aoki’s just upset about yesterday’s substitution and is using his homophobia as a way to vent it.” Aoki’s eyes darkened. 

“Of course Oikawa’s going to take Iwaizumi’s side. They’ve been best friends for ages. He turns a blind eye to it.” Aoki and Oikawa glared at each other. “I’m just not comfortable changing with him in the room watching and I don’t think others-“

“You’re a fucking asshole, you know that?” Hajime interrupted, still ignoring Mizouguchi’s scandalized looks about his word choices. “How the fuck can I watch people change if I’m facing the fucking wall?”

“That’s true coach.” Kobayashi said mildly, walking up behind them, volleyball tucked under his arm. “He and Iwaizumi also had a major fight last night, and apparently Aoki said some pretty terrible things to him and his boyfriend. And his boyfriend’s sister.” Everyone stared at him: Tooru in shock, Aoki in slight shock and betrayal, and Iwaizumi in gratitude. The coaches looked from boy to boy, assessing the situation.

“Judging from the evidence,” Irihata mildly interjected, “I’m going to side with Iwaizumi here. Aoki, I’m disappointed in you. I expected better. We not only accept your resignation, but we encourage you not to come back.” Aoki looked at him, mouth agape, before giving his now former teammates a withering glare before walking silently out of the gym. The door slammed behind him and Mizouguchi coughed into the sudden silence.

“Alright everyone! Back to practice!” Everyone quickly started moving again, but there was an extra excited chatter as they talked about what they just saw. Iwaizumi took one last glare at the door before huffing and turning away.

“Thanks Koba-san.” Kobayashi smiled, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“No problem. Just trying to make everyone feel at home here.” He gave a teasing smile. “So you’ll feel bad about taking my spot on the court and just let me keep it.” Iwaizumi smiled back.

“I see.” He elbowed Tooru. “Hey Trashykawa, wanna set for me?” Tooru brightened but hid it under a coy smile.

“Aww Iwa-chan, did you miss hitting my tosses?” Hajime immediately turned back to Kobayashi.

“I’ve changed my mind. Can I practice with you guys?” Kobayashi laughed over Tooru’s splutters of “Iwa-chan! Nooo!”

“Sure, if-“ Tooru hastily grabbed Hajime’s arm, pulling him away quickly. Kobayashi snickered.

“If you can get past Oikawa.” 

 

************************************************

“Everything going well?” Tooru murmured into his phone while Hajime was in the shower.

“All according to plan. How about there?” Ikeda sounded cheerful.

“We had an unexpected step two of Aoki trying to kick Iwa-chan out of the club and ending up putting his foot in his mouth, as the expression goes. Moving on to step three?” 

“Gotcha! One angry mob of girls, coming straight up!” Tooru had convinced them (after a lot of texts and yelling over the phone) that if any of them had a physical part in the revenge plan, Aoki would stick Iwaizumi with it and there would be trouble. This way, even though he would probably figure out they were behind it, he’d have a hell of a way to prove it. It wasn’t exactly Game of Thrones, but it would have to do.

“Love ya girl!” Makki cooed into the phone he just stole from Tooru’s hand.

“Makki!” Tooru swiped at him, but Makki ducked under his arm.

“You wanna go out to lunch sometime?” From where he was leaning over Hanamaki, Tooru could hear Ikeda’s chuckle.

“Nice try big guy. I’m pretty good with my relationship status.” 

“Are you flirting with Ikeda again?” Hajime asked, stepping out of the showers. Both boys jumped.

“Iwa-chan! Get dressed!” Hajime looked at him suspiciously and Tooru quickly snatched back his phone. “Iwa alert! I’ll talk to you later!” He hung up and gave Iwaizumi a brilliant smile. 

“Hurry up Iwa-chan! We don’t wanna be late!” Iwaizumi scowled, opening his locker.

“I take half the time you do and we’ve never been late before.” Tooru gulped and quickly looked away as Hajime dropped the towel, pulling his underwear from his locker. “Anyway, why were you calling Ikeda?”

“No particular reason!” Hajime squinted suspiciously over his shoulder, shirt halfway buttoned. Tooru wasn’t looking at him.

“Don’t hit on my boyfriend’s sister. Either of you.” Hanamaki coughed, looking slightly embarrassed before catching himself.

“What, you don’t want us as in-laws? How cruel Iwaizumi.”

“How cruel.” Tooru echoed. He pasted on a fake grin and pushed away any thoughts of Hajime’s wedding. “You should be honored to have me an an in-law!” Hajime scoffed, tucking his shirt into his pants and swinging the tie around his neck.

“Anyone who’s honored to have you as an in-law has serious mental problems.” Tooru gasped in mock hurt.

“Iwa-chan! You wound me!” Hajime snorted, pulling on the blazer and Tooru frowned. 

“Iwa-chan, where’s your vest?” Hajime looked down in mild surprise. 

“I guess I forgot it at home. It’s kinda stupid though.” He tugged at the tie and Tooru resisted the urge to swat his hands away.

“Iwa-chan, you’re such a heathen.” 

“… Care to say that again?” Hanamaki laughed, pulling out his phone and taking a Snapchat of Tooru face, writing the caption “Oiks sees his future”. Tooru screeched seeing the picture and refused to talk to him for a solid thirty minutes.

 

******************************************

The plan ended up working great. The girls not only started to shun Aoki, but five of them actually walked up to him, slapped him in the face, and then gave Hajime a kiss on the cheek each. Aoki, furious, had almost started a fistfight, but teachers had broken that up pretty quickly and even though the principal wasn’t as progressive as Tooru would have liked, he still couldn’t put aside the evidence in front of him to say that Aoki was not at fault.

“Thanks.” Tooru smiled at Hajime, flashing a peace sign and winking.

“No problem Iwa-chan!” Hajime smiled back before unlocking his front door. 

“See you tomorrow Oikawa.”

Oikawa walked home with a spring in his step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh! Sorry it took so long! I was gonna write more, but it was too long and too repetitive and too hard to write...


	17. The Stress of Keeping Secrets

Hajime glared at the small bottle of pills in front of him.

“Don’t glare at them, just take it. The doctor upped your dose since you’re bigger now.” His mother turned back to the stove, where the baby food was heating up, bouncing Hisao on her hip. Yoshi sat across the table from Hajime, smacking a food ladled spoon on the hightop chair. This is why he wore a sweater to breakfast. His mother pulled the pot off the burner and glared at him.

“Iwaizumi Hajime, I do not have the patience to deal with you right now. Take the pills now.” She kept glaring until he reached for the bottle, waiting until she saw him pop a pill into his mouth and swallow them before turning back to put the food in a bowl and Yoshi in the second high chair at the table. Hajime abruptly pushed his chair back, leaving his breakfast mostly untouched.

“I’m leaving for school.” His mother nodded absentmindedly, concentrating on spooning food into Yoshi’s mouth and wiping the food off of Hisao’s chin. Hajime reluctantly traded his comfy sweatshirt for his school blazer. 

On the way to Tooru’s house, Hajime thought he could feel the pills start to work in his stomach. His legs felt heavier and he just felt tired, to the point where watching Tooru bounce out of his house made him want to just sit down on the curb and stay there for the rest of the day.

“Iwa-chan!” Hajime mustered a half smile for his best friend.

“Hey.” Tooru was a little taken aback at his friend’s lackluster greeting, but still started talking about the new space show he was watching. Hajime half listened, nodding and grunting at the right places and trying to get his energy back before they reached the gym.

“Iwa-chan?” Hajime looked up to see a concerned Tooru looking back. “You okay? You seem a little distant.” Hajime gave a weak smile.

“Fine. Just a little tired.” Tooru hummed.

“You should get more sleep.”

“Says the guy who stays up all night watching match videos and then complains about how tired he was.” Tooru ignored Hajime’s remark.

“You need to get more sleep so you’re not dead on your feet during practice. Otherwise your brute strength won’t be any use to us!” Hajime snorted.

“Like what I do in practice matters.” The coaches had started to watch him occasionally, but he doubted he’d get a lot of game time anytime soon. Tooru frowned.

“Don’t be so negative. They’ll see how well you play. I’ll make sure of it.” Hajime inwardly winced. He appreciated the sentiment, but he didn’t really want Tooru to meddle. If he got a starter position, he wanted it to be because he was good enough, not because his friend with a starter position pushed him along. Right now he just wasn’t good enough. He had to satisfy Tooru though, so he gave a noncommittal grunt and a shoulder shrug. 

“Do what you want.” Damn, that was bitter sounding. Usually he had more control than this. Tooru eyed him sideways, but refrained from speaking any further.

Hajime was off the entire practice. His jumps were lower, his speed was slower, and even worse, he was out of sync with both Tooru and the other setter. To top it all off, he felt absolutely awful. He could feel Tooru’s concerned stare and it made him feel even worse. When practice finally ended, he took a short shower, trying not to sway too much. Exercising had made him feel nauseous and dizzy. He was regretting not eating breakfast. 

“You okay dude?” Hajime flinched when Matsukawa touched his shoulder.

“Fine.” Matsukawa gave him a look and Hajime sighed. “Seriously, I’m fine.”

“You look like you’re about to fall over. Matsukawa said flatly.

“I’m just a little tired, that’s all.” He finished pulling on his blazer, not bothering to button it or tighten his tie.

“You’re going to get in trouble if you leave like that.” Tooru tsked, tightening the tie for him and fixing it so it hung straight. Hajime sighed. Right. There was a thing for messy uniforms.

“Thanks.” He grabbed his bag from his locker, swinging it over his shoulder. “Ready?” Tooru hummed, closing his own locker.

“Yup!” Hajime felt his gaze on his back. “Iwa-chan, promise me you’ll sleep at lunch. You’re beyond dead right now.” Well, Tooru wasn’t exactly wrong. Hajime felt like death. In class, they switched their usual desks, mostly so that Tooru could nudge the back of Hajime’s chair whenever Hajime started to doze off, which happened an embarrassing number of times but not as often as Hajime thought. He was also pretty sure Tooru could hear his stomach growling.

“Iwa-chan.” Hajime jerked awake, turning to Tooru.

“What?” Tooru smirked. 

“Lunchtime.” Hajime grunted, giving himself a mental shake before pulling his lunch out of his bag. Just a medium container of leftover dinner today. A little rice, a couple of vegetables, and a few slivers of meat. At least she didn’t accidentally put baby food in his lunch again. Matsukawa and Hanamaki will never let him live that down. Inside his utensil container is another small pill. Hajime bit down a groan before palming it, waiting until Tooru was busy opening his own lunch to swallow it down dry. He tried not to feel too jealous at Tooru’s significantly larger lunch. Tooru’s mom understood the problems of an athletic adolescent boy. Tooru frowned at Hajime’s lunch.

“That’s all you have?” Hajime shrugged non-committedly, busy shoving food into his mouth. 

“Mom was busy” Tooru eyed the pace at which Hajime’s food was disappearing.

“Geez Iwa-chan. Didn’t you eat this morning?” Hajime almost froze, but willed himself to be normal.

“Of course I did. I’m just hungry.” He wasn’t really lying, he reasoned to himself. He had sat down and eaten a little.

“You really are.” Hajime jumped, almost choking, and Toshhiro chuckled, sliding a chair over to the desk. He eyed the small pile of food left dubiously. “You’re in luck. Hikaru told me to give this to you. Apparently she 'accidentally cooked too much’ again and now you have to bear some of the burden.” Hajime stared as he pulled a big bento box out of his bag.

“You’re kidding.” Toshhiro laughed.

“Well, half of it is mine, but half of it is yours.” He nudged the box towards Hajime and they shared the meal, good naturally bickering over who got what. Eventually, Hajime pushed the box away. It was hard, but he remembered the nauseous feeling from earlier and wasn’t interested in actually having anything to throw up. Plus, the medication was kicking in again and he felt really tired.

“I’m done. I’m going to take a nap. Wake me up when class starts.” Toshhiro looked at him with concern.

“You didn’t sleep well?” Hajime gave a tight smile.

“Something like that.” He sighed, pulling his chair around so he could lean on Toshhiro’s shoulder. Toshhiro immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer.

“Sleep well.” He pressed a kiss to Hajime’s forehead and Hajime fell into a peaceful sleep.

 

*******************************************

 

Tooru sighed. He’d alway been jealous at how fast Hajime could fall asleep. Hajime could be out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow if he was tired enough, while no matter how little sleep he got, it would take Tooru at least an hour, maybe two, before falling into a restless sleep. Toshhiro turned to him, one hand absentmindedly combing his fingers through Hajime’s hair. It made it stand up and Tooru had a sudden mental image as Hajime as a hedgehog.

“Is this really the result of a bad night’s sleep?” Toshhiro questioned and Tooru shrugged, frowning.

“It could be… I don’t think he’s been sleeping as much as he should be since the twins got home anyway… But I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like this before.” Toshhiro made a disgruntled noise.

“Hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow.” They sat in a semi awkward silence for the remainder of lunch. Eventually, Toshhiro nudged Hajime awake, pressing another kiss to his forehead before leaving for his own classroom. Hajime sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and giving himself a couple gentle slaps to the face to wake up.

“Sleep well?” Hajime snorted.

“You could say that. I needed that.” He ran a hand through his hair and pulled out his notebook. The knight stared boldly at Tooru over his shoulder for a second before Hajime opened it to his last page of notes. Both of them cringed a little at the disarray that was Hajime’s half asleep note taking.

“… Maybe you should borrow my notes later.” Hajime sighed, staring down at the dismal scrawl.

“Yeah. That might be a good idea.”

***************************************

The next few weeks went the same way. Get up, take the meds, go to practice. Tooru watched Hajime out of the corner of his eye as Hajime missed his spike completely for the second time. 

“Dammit!” Hajime kicked the net pole before squatting, head between his knees, to take a few deep breaths. Calm down. You can do this. The medicine’s supposed to help you focus, not stop you from performing normally. Hajime gave one last big exhale before standing up.

“Again.” Tooru clutched the volleyball, looking at him worriedly.

“Are you sure Iwa-chan? You don’t need to-“ Hajime glared at him and he cut himself off, getting into position. Hajime inhaled, gave a quick prayer to the gods, and ran up. Hit the ball, hit the ball, just hit the ball. His hand made contact and the ball sailed gracefully over the net. Not a lot of power, but it went in the court. Hajime could work with that.

“Okay. I’m good.” Hajime nodded at the net, wondering when his standards had dropped so low as to end on that as a positive note. Tooru frowned at his back. Honestly, he was worried. Hajime had been acting weird for about a month now. It wasn’t a major difference but Tooru could tell and he thought Hanamaki and Matsukawa might be picking up on it too now. Hajime was more subdued, less energetic, quieter. He also seemed to be frustrated more often. Honestly, it was more than a little disconcerting, but Tooru didn’t know how to bring it up. 

Tooru sighed. Sometimes Hajime was too stubborn for his own good. He had to know that his friends were there for him, right? That they would support him through whatever was bothering him if he only asked?

“Oi! Kawa! You coming?” Tooru jerked out of his thoughts before flashing a smile at his friend standing by the locker room door.

“Coming Iwa-chan!”

************************************************

“Okay.” Tooru jumped back in surprise as Toshhiro slammed his lunch onto Tooru’s desk. “What the hell is wrong with my boyfriend?” 

“I don’t know.” Tooru frowned. So Toshhiro noticed too. He glanced at the classroom door. Hajime would probably be finished in the bathroom soon.

“But you noticed it too? It’s not just me?” Toshhiro pressed, pulling up a chair and sitting down. “I’m not just being a paranoid overprotective boyfriend?” Tooru frowned again.

“You’re not being paranoid. Something’s up but he hasn’t mentioned anything being wrong yet.” Toshhiro frowned, opening his lunchbox. 

“I don’t like this. Why hasn’t he told us anything?” Tooru watched, fascinated, as he aggressively stabbed at his lunch.

“No clue… He’s still grounded for the thing, right?” Toshhiro shook his head.

“No, his mom let him out of that last week. Or at least I think she did. Maybe Hajime snuck out…?” His face contorted into what Tooru could only describe as a pout. “I don’t like not knowing.” Tooru could agree to that.

“Oh. Hey.” Hajime plopped back into his seat, startling both Tooru and Toshhiro. Toshhiro recovered quickly, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh hey? That’s all you have to say with me?” Hajime winced at the hurt tone under the playful words.” 

“Sorry.” He gave Toshhiro a quick peck on the cheek. “Better?” Toshhiro gave a slight smile before pecking him on the lips. 

“Mmm. Is now.” Hajime’s own smile softened as he returned the kiss and Tooru looked down at his food, appetite diminished.

“How are you today?” He hears Toshhiro murmur.

“Mm… I’m glad you’re here.” Annnd they’re kissing again. Tooru sighs. 

*************************

Hajime blinked at his drawing before recoiling away in horror. He had just been absentmindedly doodling! He had a date in a couple hours and was just passing the time! So how did his doodle turn into… this? Hajime shivered before slowly and purposely ripping the drawing out of his sketchbook and slowly crumpling it into a ball. That wasn’t how he viewed himself. That wasn’t even how he viewed his family. He knew he wasn’t really a burden to them. But still. Who in their right mind would even subconsciously draw their family reacting to their death like that? With shaky hands and trembling fingers he reached for his phone to dial a now familiar number.

“Toshhiro? Hey, it’s me. Can I come over?”

*************************

“I’ve got it!” Now it’s Toshhiro’s turn to be startled and he springs up from the bench, tripping over his own feet in his surprise. He lands in an ungracefully on his butt but Tooru’s too triumphant and relieved to laugh.

“Got what?” Toshhiro asks, scrambling to his feet. “And why aren’t you at practice?” Tooru waved a dismissive hand. 

“Coach had a wedding or something and the captain decided to give us the day off. No biggie. Anyway, back to the point! I think I figured out what’s going on with Iwa-chan!” Now he had Toshhiro’s full attention.

“Yeah? What is it?” A little of Tooru’s excitement died once he remembered what he was so thrilled about finding out.

“I think his parents put him back on his medication. Which is wack in it’s own right but I don’t think the dosage is right.” Toshhiro frowned, taking a step back.

“Wait. Medication? For what? Is he sick?” Tooru blinked, surprised.

“No? He...has...ADHD?” Tooru winced a little as Toshhiro’s face fell flat. “He uh… I’m gonna guess he didn’t tell you that.” Toshhiro sighed, slumping back onto the bench.

“No, no he did not. God, why wouldn’t he tell me a little thing like that?” Tooru took pity on him.

“He doesn’t really tell anyone. He didn’t tell me until years after his diagnosis and that’s only because I was insulting him.” Apparently his words didn’t help because Toshhiro threw down his cap before burying his face in his hands.

“I’m his boyfriend! He should tell me these things!”

“I should tell you what?” Both Torru and Toshhiro flinched. Why was Hajime so good at sneaking up on people? Toshhiro sighed before raising his head to look Hajime in the eyes.

“Oikawa was just telling me about your ADHD.” Hajime frowned, glancing between his boyfriend and his best friend suspiciously.

“Okay?” Toshhiro frowned and Tooru took that as his cue.

“I’m uh… I’m just going to leave, okay. See you later Iwa-chan!” He awkwardly backed up before giving a wave and stiffly walking away. Both Hajime and Toshhiro watched him go before Toshhiro turned back to Hajime.

“I would have rather heard you had a condition like that from you rather than your friend.” Hajime frowned back.

“I didn't think it was a big deal. It doesn’t make you think of me different, right?” Toshhiro looked like he was going to argue the point but softened when he saw the slight trace of insecurity in Hajime’s face.

“Of course not. I just would rather you tell me these things, okay.” Hajime gave him a weak smile.

“Okay.” Toshhiro sighed, getting to his feet to pull Hajime into a hug, feeling how Hajime sunk into his embrace.

“I care about you. You know that, right?” Hajime nodded, face still buried in Toshhiro’s shirt. “I want to know all these little things because I want to know you better.” Hajime clung tighter to his boyfriend and Toshhiro rubbed circles on his back, feeling Hajime’s sigh through his shirt.

“Hajime I-” Hazel eyes met brown and Toshhiro almost lost his nerve. Damn Hajime’s inquisitive face be so cute and innocent. “I think…” Hajime blinked, cocking his head slightly to one side, a slight wrinkle forming between his brows.

“What?” Great, now he looked nervous. Toshhiro took a deep breath, absentmindedly pulling Hajime closer. If Hajime could ask him out, he could do this.

“I think I love you. I’m in love with you.” Hajime’s eyes widened and Toshhiro instinctively tightened his grip around Hajime’s waist, the other hand coming up to smooth back his boyfriend’s hair. “And- and you don’t have to say it back but I want to know everything about you and-” Hajime cuts him off by grabbing his face and kissing him. Hard.

“It’s okay. I think- I think I might love you too.” Toshhiro grins giddily, basking in the glow of Hajime’s blush and shy smile. This one’s special, no doubt about it.

“Awesome.” It’s breathy and sounds completely lovestruck but Hajime laughs and sounds wonderfully carefree so Toshhiro forgets about sounding cool and kisses him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh.... I've been sitting on this half finished draft for a year... that's horrible of me. I am so sorry. I was going to add more to this chapter but it's late and the chapter was pretty angsty before I added what I was going to add so I think I'll end it on this happy note instead. Cuz Iwaizumi deserves to be happy. I was going to have Oikawa watch the confession from far away but I decided I've tortured him enough for now. 
> 
> Notes! Notes!
> 
> 1) If you couldn't tell, Iwaizumi's not doing so hot right now. Firstly, he feels a little abandoned by his parents and feels awful for thinking it. He loves the twins, he just wishes that they didn't take so much of his parents' time and good moods and then feels bad for blaming babies for something that they can't help.
> 
> Secondly, like Oikawa said, the dosage for his medication isn't right. For him, side effects do include lethargy, tiredness, and slight depression. Not a good combination if you're already feeling bad. But no worries! Toshhiro and Oikawa won't let anything happen to him!
> 
> (side note: I have done no research for this fic so if these aren't actually symptoms like I think they could be, I'm sorry)
> 
> 2) Please don't judge his mother too hard! She's really stressed right now and Iwaizumi's not really the type to be moody so she doesn't really understand what's going on with him. The twins take up a lot of time and effort, more than she was expecting, and all she knows is that her oldest son has been acting differently than she's used to ever since they arrived. She loves him, she does! Her mind's just on one hundred other things right now.
> 
> More on all of this in the next chapter.
> 
> 3) Sorry for it being all disjointed! It was the only way I could find around my crippling writers block...
> 
> 4) For those who want more IwaOi and less Toshhiro- patience. This is a very gradual process. I fully support oblivious!Iwaizumi. Also, Iwaizumi's going through a lot right now and he needs the support system Toshhiro gives him.
> 
> Thank you for all of your patience!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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